Dear friends:
The 2018 California legislative session is drawing to a close. There are just under three weeks until the August 31 deadline for bills to pass or die. Many key measures are awaiting hearings or are already on the floor
SB 320 would require all California public university campus health clinics to provide medication abortions up to ten weeks. It would establish a College Student Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund to distribute $9.6 million to these clinics. Money from organizations and private citizens would be donated to this fund.
This bad bill will be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 16.
The committee’s chair, Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), is a Catholic who has stated that she is pro-woman and pro-choice.
Please pray that Chairwoman Fletcher will seek wisdom from the Lord and know that baby girls – even tiny ones – are women, too, and in need of protection!
Please act.
1. Call Chairwoman Fletcher and ask her to oppose SB 320. As committee chair, she has the ability to hold this bill under submission and not allow it to move to the floor. Be sure to let her know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of California.
Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher
Sacramento Office: 916-319-2080
San Diego District Office: 619-338-8090
Note: The Appropriations Committee is primarily concerned with the fiscal side of bills, not their policy merits. So, if you make additional comments when you call, you might mention: While SB 320 states that public universities are not “required” to use general fund moneys for this purpose, it does not exclude taxpayer funds or student fees from being used. Additionally, Californians would certainly bear the cost or any wrongful injury or death lawsuits brought against the schools.
2. Call your own assembly member and ask him or her to oppose SB 320 if it reaches the Assembly floor. This could happen quickly if the bill passes out of committee. If you don’t know who your assembly member is or how to contact them, click here.
More about SB 320:
SB 320 states, “It is the intent of the Legislature that public university student health centers make abortion by medication techniques as accessible and cost-effective for students as possible, and thus public university student health centers should treat abortion by medication techniques as a basic health service.”
Abortion by medication is RU-486 abortion pill – a two-stage process in which the first pill kills the baby (up to 10 weeks gestation) and then the second, which the young woman self-administers, creates what is essentially a self-induced miscarriage. Young women will go back to their dorms or apartments, take the pill at the appointed time and experience the physical and emotional trauma of the death of their tiny babies and the sometimes very dangerous aftermath. The psychological effects can last a lifetime. There is no requirement for counseling young women with alternatives to aborting their children in SB 320.
Is this part of the mission of our state institutions of higher education?
Providing early medication abortions, even assuming the condition of ultrasound imaging to ensure the pregnancy is not ectopic, could be detrimental to young women’s health. Side effects can cause harm and be unsafe for the student undergoing this treatment. Physical side effects of the second drug include heavy vaginal bleeding (which could lead to the need for immediate surgical attention to stop the bleeding), cramping, nausea, fever/chills, vomiting, headache, and dizziness. Serious injuries, and even deaths, have been reported. Emotional side effects include the trauma of witnessing the very early birth of a tiny dead baby in her dorm room or apartment. This can be damaging to her for years to come.
Further, this bad bill would also put employees who are prolife in a position contrary to their closely-held beliefs. There are no explicit allowances to provide such rights of conscience in SB 320.
Please make your two calls as soon as possible. If you have additional time, below are some key members of the committee who should hear from concerned Californians asking them to oppose SB 320.
Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) 916-319-2018
Ian C. Calderon (D-City of Industry) 916-319-2057
Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) 916-319-2051
Ed Chau (D-Monterey Park) 916-319-2049
Eduardo Garcia (D-Imperial) 916-319-2056
Adrin Nazarian (D-Van Nuys) 916-319-2046
Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) 916-319-2020
Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) 916-319-2047
Thank you for making a difference!
With you for women and the unborn,
Marlo Tucker
State Director
CWA of California
director@california.cwfa.org
ca.cwfa.org