BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 775
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
775 (Chiu and Burke)
As Amended May 4, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
|----------------+------+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Health |12-5 |Bonta, Bonilla, Burke, |Maienschein, Chávez, |
| | |Chiu, Gomez, Gonzalez, |Lackey, Patterson, |
| | |Nazarian, |Waldron |
| | |Ridley-Thomas, | |
| | |Rodriguez, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Wood | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+-----------------------+---------------------|
|Judiciary |7-3 |Mark Stone, Alejo, |Wagner, Gallagher, |
| | |Chau, Chiu, Cristina |Maienschein |
| | |Garcia, Holden, | |
| | |O'Donnell | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Requires licensed clinics that provide family planning
or pregnancy-related services to provide a notice to consumers
regarding their reproductive rights and the availability of
services in California. Requires unlicensed facilities that
provide pregnancy-related services to disseminate and post a
notice informing consumers that they are not a licensed medical
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facility and to include the notice in their advertising materials.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of this bill. According to the author, California has a
proud legacy of respecting reproductive freedom and funding
forward thinking programs to provide reproductive health
assistance to low income women. The author notes that according
to the Department of Health Care Services, the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act expansion has made millions
of Californians, 53% of them women, newly eligible for Medi-cal.
The author states because pregnancy decisions are time
sensitive, California women should receive information about
their rights and available services at the sites where they
obtain care.
The author contends that, unfortunately, there are nearly 200
licensed and unlicensed clinics known as crisis pregnancy
centers (CPCs) in California whose goal is to interfere with a
woman's ability to be fully informed and exercise their
reproductive rights, and that CPCs pose as full-service women's
health clinics, but aim to discourage and prevent women from
seeking abortions. The author concludes that these
intentionally deceptive advertising and counseling practices
often confuse, misinform, and even intimidate women from making
fully-informed, time-sensitive decisions about critical health
care.
2)Background. CPCs are facilities, both licensed and unlicensed,
which present themselves as comprehensive reproductive health
centers, but are commonly affiliated with, or run by
organizations whose stated goal is to prevent women from
accessing abortions. A 2015 NARAL Pro-Choice America report on
CPCs notes that the National Institute of Family and Life
Advocates (an organization with over 1,300 CPC affiliates)
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states on its Web site that it is on the front line of the
cultural battle over abortion, and its vision is to provide CPCs
with legal resources and counsel, with the aim of developing a
network of life-affirming ministries in every community across
the nation in order to achieve an abortion-free America. The
NARAL report also sent several researchers into CPCs to receive
the counseling offered, and they widely reported that they were
provided with inaccurate information, including only being given
information regarding the risks of abortion, being told that
many women commit suicide after having an abortion, and being
told abortions can cause breast cancer.
In fall of 2009 the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer
Protection Committee, concerned that CPCs throughout California
were disseminating medically inaccurate information about
pregnancy options available in the state, requested a report by
the University of California, Hastings College of Law regarding
CPCs' practices and potential legislative options for regulating
them. Completed in December of 2010, "Pregnancy Resource
Centers: Ensuring Access and Accuracy of Information,"
discusses several options for regulation of CPCs, ranging from
creating new regulations, leveraging existing regulations aimed
specifically at medical services, as well as creating a new
statute. Because approaches that have treated CPCs and
full-service pregnancy centers differently have been challenged
as violating the First Amendment, the report concludes that the
best approach to a statutory change would regulate all pregnancy
centers, not just CPCs, in a uniform manner, which is the
approach that this bill adopts.
3)Support. Black Women for Wellness and NARAL Pro-Choice,
California the co-sponsors of this bill as well as numerous
other organizations, including, California Council of Churches
IMPACT, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, Maternal
and Child Health Access, and Planned Parenthood, California,
support this bill because it requires unlicensed facilities that
provide pregnancy-related care to inform clients that they are
not a licensed medical facility and do not have a licensed
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provider on staff, enabling women to seek the care they wish to
obtain and providing context for counseling given at these
unlicensed facilities. They also state that distributing a
notice of reproductive health services would ensure that women
in any reproductive health or pregnancy counseling facility know
that California respects their rights and provides assistance.
4)Opposition. The California Catholic Conference (CCC) opposes
this bill stating, on its surface, this bill proposes to
regulate the state's pregnancy centers, but in actuality is
aimed at discriminating against those pregnancy centers that
hold a pro-life viewpoint. CCC contends that such unfair
legislation may discourage women from getting the assistance
that they need and deserve as well as expose many of these
pregnancy centers to needless criminal or civil sanctions for
failure to comply. CCC concludes that because they believe all
life is sacred, they support programs which offer medical,
economic and emotional support for pregnant women and children,
so that they can make life-affirming choices.
Analysis Prepared by:
Lara Flynn / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN: 0000399