Text of CA AB 583 (2024)

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 583 Introduced by Assembly Member Wicks February 09, 2023 An act to add Section 127640 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 583, as introduced, Wicks. Reproductive justice. Existing law establishes the California Reproductive Health Equity Program within the Department of Health Care Access and Information to ensure abortion and contraception services are affordable for and accessible to all patients and to provide financial support for safety net providers of these services. This bill would make specified findings and declarations regarding reproductive justice. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 127640 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 127640. (a) Reproductive justice is a framework created by Black women in 1994 to address the intersectional and multifactored issues that women of color and their families face in society. (b) Reproductive justice is the human right to control our bodies, sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction. That right can only be achieved when all people, particularly women and girls, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities in all areas of their lives. Two of the core tenets of reproductive justice are the right to have children and the right to parent the children we have with dignity and respect in safe and sustainable communities. (c) Reproductive justice affirms that every birthing person is entitled to dignity and demands that they are equipped with the necessary supports for a safe, joyous, and positive birthing process.