SACRAMENTO—Voters will decide whether abortion should be protected as a state constitutional right, after the California Assembly voted 58–16 to add the issue June 27 on the upcoming November ballot.
Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 (SCA 10), authored by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), will now go before voters in the General Election Nov. 8.
The amendment, if approved by voters, will expand California’s current abortion protections under the Reproductive Privacy Act, which allows women to seek an abortion without prohibition or infringement on privacy.
It would additionally enshrine access to abortion into the state’s Constitution by prohibiting “the state from denying or interfering with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.”
Atkins authored the bill in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that largely legalized abortion in the United States. Now, the issue will be decided by states.
“Abortion is health care, and should be a private discussion between a patient and their health care provider,” Atkins said in a statement June 27.
During the assembly’s hearing on the issue, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) asked his colleagues if “post-viability” abortions would be withdrawn.
“SCA 10 is extreme, even for a state like California,” Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council—a Christian advocacy group—said in a statement. “Many people who identify as pro-choice still reject the idea of abortions ending the lives of viable children late in pregnancy.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the passage of SCA 10, saying California “will not back down from the fight to protect abortion rights as more than half the states in this country, enabled by the Supreme Court, ban or severely restrict access.”
In the recently approved 2022–2023 budget for the state, $200 million toward abortion access has been earmarked.
Newsom has also joined the governors in Oregon and Washington in welcoming out-of-state abortion seekers who cannot get the procedure at home.
