Micaiah Bilger – June 15, 2022
California Democrat lawmakers rapidly advanced a radical pro-abortion bill Tuesday that would create an explicit state constitutional “right” to abort unborn babies.
KTXL reports two Democrat-run committees passed the bill on the same day, the state Senate Judiciary Committee in a 9-1 vote and the Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments in a 3-1 vote.
State Senate pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, introduced the proposed constitutional amendment in response to the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade this summer.
“In California, we cannot standby as women and families are left vulnerable as our highest court moves to strip away our rights and put people in harm’s way,” Atkins said.
Her bill, state Senate Constitutional Amendment 10, would add the following language to the California Constitution: “The state shall not deny or interfere 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.”
State pro-life organizations slammed the dangerous proposal and urged pro-lifers to contact their state lawmakers to oppose it.
In an email Tuesday, the California Family Council described the amendment as “deadly” because it would “enshrine abortion as a protected right in the state constitution.” And the California Catholic Conference warned that it would allow unborn babies to be aborted up to birth.
“This constitutional amendment as written will legalize and protect abortion up to the point just prior to delivery,” executive director Kathleen Domingo said. “It is distressing that so many California legislators would sign their names to legislation that allows the taking of a human life moments before birth.”
The AP reports lawmakers are pushing the amendment forward at an “unusually fast pace,” and another hearing is scheduled Thursday in the state Senate Appropriations Committee.