Formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America
The California constitution and state law currently protect abortion, contraception, and more, but there's more work to do. In 2024 we scored the following state bills that protect and expand access to reproductive freedom.
Authored by Senator Caroline Menjivar
Requires health plans to provide coverage for fertility care, including treatment for infertility and in vitro fertilization (IVF), and ensures that LGBTQ+ couples are not unfairly excluded from coverage.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Akilah Weber
Stems the tide of hospitals closing their labor and delivery wards by requiring community impact assessments and the opportunity for public input prior to any closure.
Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan
Expands access to reproductive health care by streamlining the process for reproductive health clinics to open in California.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2024
Authored by Assemblymember Lori Wilson
Aims to reduce the maternal mortality rate among Black women and pregnant people by ensuring the successful implementation of the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act of 2019 (which Repro for All CA sponsored) and strengthening implicit bias training.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 26, 2024
Authored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris
Establishes the Reproductive Health Emergency Preparedness Program (RHEPP) to expand access to treatment for pregnancy loss, miscarriage, and abortion care at Emergency Departments across California.
Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 20, 2024
authored by Senator Nancy Skinner
Ensures equitable access to period products across California by requiring free period products in state owned or leased buildings, buildings where a state funded safety net program is administered, and hospitals that receive state funding.
Status: Focus of bill became battery electric vehicles in January 2024.
authored by Senator Nancy Skinner
Allows Arizona abortion providers to temporarily provide abortion care to patients from Arizona who travel to California for care.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on May 23, 2024
authored by Senator Caroline Menjivar
Adds menstrual products to the schedule of covered benefits under Medi-Cal by requiring that the Department of Health Care Services seek any and all federal waivers to implement coverage.
Status: Held in the Senate Appropriations committee on May 16, 2024
authored by Senator Caroline Menjivar
Makes free condoms available in public high schools, ensures condoms can be distributed as part of on-campus sex education programs, and prohibits retailers from asking for IDs for condom purchases.
Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 24, 2024
authored by Senator Maria Elena Durazo
Allows California workers to apply for Paid Family Leave and State Disability Insurance benefits up to 30 days before they are on leave, allowing workers to get confirmation of their eligibility and benefit amount before starting their leave and receive benefits sooner.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2024
authored by Senator Lena Gonzalez
Addresses impediments to the Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT) program to improve and streamline the ability for health care providers to become Family PACT providers and deliver family planning services to Californians.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin
Establishes a reproductive health and behavioral health integration pilot program for Family PACT and Medi-Cal managed care providers. (2-year bill)
Status: Held in the Senate Health committee on May 14, 2024 and dead
authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan
Allows incarcerated people to access menstrual supplies without needing to request the items.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Eloise Reyes
Prohibits the use of Methylene Chloride in the manufacturing process of decaffeinated coffee. It is common for pregnant people to switch from caffeinated to decaffeinated drinks, assuming it is safe to consume. However, coffee decaffeinated using Methylene Chloride may pose a risk to the health and well-being of both pregnant person and fetus.
Status: Held in the Asm. Appropriations committee on May 16, 2024 and dead
authored by Assemblymembers Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Kevin McCarty
Protects reproductive health clinics, patients, and providers by updating the penalties for violating the FACE Act.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Diane Papan
Allows workers to access paid family leave without having to use accrued vacation time first.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris
Requires commercial health plans to cover the cost of immediate postpartum contraception provided in hospital and accredited birth center settings as a separate payment from the standard global OB code payment.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 29, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor
Seeks to address adverse health outcomes for systems involved pregnant people by delaying or diverting confinement from pregnancy through the postpartum period.
Status: Held in the Asm. Appropriations committee on May 16, 2024 and dead
authored by Assemblymember Lori Wilson
Adds the definition of “Menstrual Health” and updates the current sexual health curriculum by adding information regarding “menstrual cycle, premenstrual syndrome and pain management, menstrual disorders, menstrual irregularities, menopause, menstrual stigma, and any other relevant topics related to the menstrual cycle.”
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 27, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Rick Zbur
Codifies longstanding federal guidance requiring health plans to cover services that are integral to recommended preventive care – including HIV and STI screenings for PrEP and cervical cancer screenings – without requiring patients to pay out-of-pocket.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 27, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry
Expands Medi-Cal provisions to allow for Medi-Cal beneficiaries to access sexual and reproductive health care services that can appropriately be provided using an asynchronous telehealth modality, including via mobile apps.
Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 20, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Diane Papan
Expands CA PFAS prohibition laws to menstrual products, recognizing the adverse health impacts of these chemicals, and requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to assess the hazards of chemicals that can have similar functions as PFAS and impact vulnerable populations.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 30, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan
Improves the conditions for incarcerated pregnant people by requiring a minimum of 120 ounces of clean water, access to high quality meals, and preventing pregnant people’s placement in solitary confinement during pregnancy and for 12 weeks postpartum.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 27, 2024
authored by Assemblymember PILAR SCHIAVO
Requires CDPH to develop an awareness campaign to publicize the internet website “abortion.ca.gov” to the general public, health care providers, health care professional associations and societies, health care employers, and local public health officers and health departments.
Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 20, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner
Authorizes the County of San Diego to establish a pilot program for pelvic floor and core conditioning group classes that would be provided to people twice a week between their 6 to 12 week postpartum window to help people rebuild their pelvic floor after pregnancy.
Status: Signed into law by Governor Newsom on August 26, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry
Grants school employees up to 14 weeks of leave with full pay, paid for by the employer, when an employee is experiencing or has experienced pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from those conditions.
Status: Ordered to Senate inactive file on August 28, 2024
authored by Assemblymember Jim Wood
Authorizes the CA Attorney General to grant, deny or impose conditions to a change of control or acquisition between a private equity group or hedge fund and a health care facility, provider group or both if those changes would have anticompetitive effects or negatively impact access or availability of health care services to the community.
Status: Vetoed by Governor Newsom on September 28, 2024
*Indicates a CA Future of Abortion Council Bill. The FAB Council is comprised of reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care allies, partners, and leaders working in collaboration with policy makers, researchers, advocates, providers, patients, and key constituents to determine potential challenges to accessing abortion care in the state and recommend solutions that will continue to provide access and stability for both Californians and those who may seek services here from out of state.
We successfully lead the fight to pass reproductive freedom policy at the state level.
Press Release California
Press Release California
Trump's second presidency will likely have even more devastating consequences for reproductive freedom. Sign your name and join us in shouting it from the rooftops: NO NATIONAL ABORTION BAN.
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