BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SJR 19
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SJR
19 (Jackson)
As Amended January 12, 2016
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE: 25-12
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Health |11-5 |Wood, Bonilla, Burke, |Lackey, Olsen, |
| | |Campos, Chiu, Gomez, |Patterson, |
| | |Nazarian, |Steinorth, Waldron |
| | |Ridley-Thomas, | |
| | |Rodriguez, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Urges the President of the United States (U.S.) and
Congress to express their support for access to comprehensive
reproductive health care, including the services provided by
Planned Parenthood and a woman's fundamental right to make her
own reproductive decisions, and to strongly oppose efforts to
eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
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EXISTING STATE LAW establishes the California Reproductive
Privacy Act, which prohibits the state from denying or
interfering with a women's right to choose or obtain an abortion
prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is
necessary to protect the life or health of the woman, and makes
legislative findings and declarations that every individual
possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to
personal reproductive decisions, and that every woman has the
fundamental right to choose to bear a child or to choose and to
obtain an abortion, as specified.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW prohibits federal Medicaid (Medi-Cal in
California) dollars from being spent on abortion services except
in extraordinary circumstances, such as when the woman's life is
in danger, or in cases of rape or incest.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS: According to the author, this resolution reaffirms
that the State of California stands in strong support of Roe v.
Wade and the work of Planned Parenthood, and of women's
reproductive health, and respects the principle that each woman
has a fundamental right to make decisions regarding her
pregnancy.
1)Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), is a landmark
decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of
abortion. Decided simultaneously with a companion case, Doe
v. Bolton, the Court ruled seven to two that a right to
privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment
extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that
right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate
interests in regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life
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and protecting women's health. Arguing that these state
interests became stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the
Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation
of abortion to the trimester of pregnancy. This Legislature
has on numerous occasions adopted resolutions urging the
President and Congress to reaffirm the intent and substance of
that decision.
2)Planned Parenthood in the news. Starting in July of last
year, Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that
provides reproductive health care services throughout the U.S.
through a network of affiliated clinics, was prominently
featured in the national news cycle after the release of
controversial videos purporting to show that Planned
Parenthood illegally sold fetal tissue for profit. Planned
Parenthood has denied those accusations and several state
investigations have turned up no wrongdoing on the part of the
organization. In the fall of 2015, news outlets reported that
a Planned Parenthood facility in Thousand Oaks, California
suffered an arson attack after a window was smashed and
gasoline was splashed inside and ignited. On November 27,
2015, according to reports, a man armed with an assault-style
rifle gun opened fire at a Planned Parenthood center in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, ultimately killing three people,
including a police officer and two civilians, and wounding
nine others before he finally surrendered five hours later.
3)Medicaid funding. Ten states have taken action or recently
passed legislation to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned
Parenthood: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana,
Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin. On April
19, 2016, the Obama Administration warned officials in all 50
states that actions to end Medicaid funding of Planned
Parenthood may be out of compliance with federal law. A
letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is
being sent to all state Medicaid offices to clarify that
terminating certain providers from Medicaid is only
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justifiable if those providers are unable to perform covered
medical services or can't bill for those services. The
guidance emphasizes that states cannot target providers for
impermissible reasons and are required to treat similar types
of provider equitably.
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC) is the
sponsor of this resolution and states that the ruling in Roe v.
Wade cemented the right for women to control their own
reproductive lives and eliminated the need for women to receive
unsafe, illegal abortion procedures. PPAC notes Planned
Parenthood health centers play a substantial role in delivering
reproductive health care services to over a million Californians
each year, as well as an array of services including well-woman
exams, birth control, testing and treatment of sexually
transmitted infections and HIV, pregnancy tests, life-saving
cancer screenings, prenatal care, sex education, primary care
services, and in some locations, abortion services.
The California Right to Life Committee (CRLC), Inc., opposes
this resolution stating that most Planned Parenthood centers are
located in communities of color where low income women live and
which would appear to be for racially connected purposes. CRLC
contends that abortion services are a major portion of Planned
Parenthood reproductive services in the United States and that
323,999 abortions were done in 2014, half of which could have
been female babies. CRLC concludes that tax payers should
demand that no more monies go to further the horror story of the
dismemberment and torture of pre-born babies.
Analysis Prepared by:
Lara Flynn / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN:
0002871
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