A new bill in California, passed by the Committee on Appropriations last week, would force public schools to teach children as young as 12 (too young to legally consent to sex in any state) how and where to have an abortion as part of an “inclusivity and support in conversations surrounding abortion” portion of comprehensive sex education in both middle and high schools.
According to The Washington Stand, AB 598 is one of 17 new abortion-related bills that pro-abortion legislators have introduced to help make California into an “abortion sanctuary.” Created by the California Future of Abortion Council and introduced by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, AB 598 would update existing sexual education requirements to ensure that middle and high school children receive “guidance regarding contraceptive methods and abortion.”
“This year I am doing a bill to ensure that our young people have not just education around reproductive care, but they know how to access such care,” said Wicks. “My bill expands our sexual reproductive education requirements to ensure our young people have knowledge, and know where to, and how to receive abortion care along with contraception care and all the other care that our young people deserve to know about it.”
Teachers would be required to give their young students “information about obtaining abortions during different stages of pregnancy, including informational resources, methods, and medical risks.” It would also ensure that all students “receive a physical or digital resource detailing the local resources” for having an abortion. Teachers would be instructed to have a “positive” attitude about abortion and teach children to “support” abortion.
In other words, public schools in California would be required to direct students as young as 12 to abortion businesses.
Interestingly, the website FindLaw notes, “Under §6922, a minor can consent to medical care under the following circumstances: 1) If they are older than 15, 2) If they are living apart from their parents, and 3) If they are managing their own finances.”
According to WorldPopulationReview.com, the age of sexual consent in California is even higher — at age 18. The site notes:
… Its age of consent is 18, and anyone seventeen or under is considered incapable of consenting to sex in California. So, anyone having sex with a partner under eighteen is theoretically committing a crime. Even if both partners are under eighteen, technically, both can be prosecuted under the state’s law.
California’s statutory rape law is violated when a person has consensual sexual intercourse with an individual under age 18 who is not their spouse. Punishments vary depending on the respective ages of both victim and offender. Separate crimes exist for sodomy with minors and sexual intercourse with a child under age 14 when the attacker is at least seven years older. California has seven statutory sexual abuse charges on the books.
In addition, according to Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, under California law, minors can undergo an abortion and obtain birth control without parental notification or parental consent. The sole exception is that minors under the age of 12 can’t consent to STI testing or treatment and must have parental consent to do so.
So while minors typically must be 15 years old in order to access any medical care in California without parental consent, and age 12 to consent to STI testing and treatment, the laws don’t apply to abortion or birth control. A child of any age — even below the age of sexual consent — can obtain birth control and undergo abortions without even informing their parents. And now their teachers will be forced to speak positively about abortion with them.
“Instruction shall also discuss accessibility of and community attitudes toward reproductive care, with an emphasis on positive community tenets such as inclusivity and support in conversations surrounding abortion or contraception,” reads the bill.
In addition, Wicks explained that teachers would be required to administer the California Healthy Kids Survey to students so that lawmakers can continue to update the sexual education requirements to ensure children know as much ‘how to’ information about sex and abortion as possible.
“It also ensures that our school districts are required to administer the California Healthy Survey test that includes a test around reproductive care and contraceptive care in that healthy survey so that we policymakers and educators can have data around what our young people are experiencing and how they understand these issues, and we can create the appropriate curriculum for them,” she said.
In response to the bill, Mary Rose Short, the director of California Right to Life, told The Washington Stand, “California’s mandatory sex-ed program has always been a boon to the abortion industry. Encouraging children to engage in sexual activity will inevitably result in unintended pregnancies, so it’s not surprising that the Democrats in the legislature want every middle and high school student to know where to get an abortion without involving their parents. If students make it to college, it’s even easier to get an abortion, since California law mandates that state universities provide abortions on campus as a staple of student life.”
