Current Highlighted Bills
AB 499 (Assemblymember Toni Atkins)
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California SUPPORTS AB 499
About:
Current law allows minors to consent to specified forms of medical or dental treatment, including, drug and alcohol abuse counseling, mental health and pregnancy related care. Under current law, only minors “who may have come into contact with an infectious, contagious, or communicable disease may consent to medical care related to the diagnosis or treatment of the disease.” This bill would allow minors to consent to medical care to prevent contracting a sexually transmitted disease.
Many of the current prevention methods did not exist when the law was written in 1964. New developments in STD prevention, such as vaccinations for hepatitis B and the human papilloma virus (HPV), as well as prophylactic post-exposure HIV medications have given rise to the need for this legislation.
While most teens involve their parents in medical decisions, there may be reasons why a teen cannot talk to their parents about sensitive subjects. Maybe they live in an abusive home or fear being kicked out of their house by angry parents. Unfortunately, requiring minors obtain parental consent for STD prevention services has resulted in teens not seeking vital and time-sensitive medical care.
AB 499 Sponsors: California STD Controllers Association and American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District IX California
AB 499 Supported by: California STD Controllers Association,ACCESS Women's Health Justice, ACT for Women and Girls, American Association of University Women, American Civil Liberties Union, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, District, IX California, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, California Adolescent Health Collaborative, California Church Impact, California Coalition for Youth, California Communities United Institute, California Family Health Council, California Medical Association, California National Organization for Women, California Nurses Association, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Kaiser Permanente, NARAL Pro-Choice California, National Center for Youth Law, National Council of Jewish Women, Nevada County Citizens for Choice, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles County, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Reproductive Justice Coalition, Women's Health Specialists
AB 714 (Assemblymember Toni Atkins)
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California SUPPORTS AB 714
About:
Last year Congress passed Federal Health Care Reform legislation, known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As a result, up to six million currently uninsured Californians will be eligible for health coverage beginning in 2014. In order to maximize federal funding and anticipated cost savings of the ACA, the enrollment process for the uninsured must be as efficient as possible and ensure continuity of care by using existing essential community providers.
Californians who are already enrolled in state-sponsored programs present a golden opportunity to expedite this process. The Family PACT program currently provides reproductive health services to 1.67 million Californians. As all of these patients will become eligible for coverage under either extended Medi-Cal or the Exchange in 2014.
AB 714 will jump-start enrollment of those newly eligible for Medi-Cal or the Exchange in 2014. The bill creates a process to notify current Family PACT patients, along with enrollees in AIM (Access for Infants and Mothers), Healthy Families, and the breast and cervical cancer treatment program of the new health care coverage under ACA and begin to “pre-enroll” individuals and families starting in 2013.
AB 714 Sponsor: Health Access California
SB 703 (Senator Ed Hernandez)
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California SUPPORTS SB 703
About:
Under health care reform, almost everyone will be required to have health insurance. People will either be eligible for coverage under expanded Medi-Cal or will be able to purchase insurance through the California Health Benefit Exchange. To make coverage within the Exchange more affordable, it will be subsidized with sliding scale premium tax credits, lower cost sharing, and lower out-of-pocket limits. Despite this, the cost of coverage may still be too expensive for many low income families.
SB 703 sets up a Basic Health Plan (BHP), which would be 100% federally funded and would allow the state to directly contract with plans to provide health care for many low income families who would otherwise need to purchase insurance from the Exchange. The BHP is a way for California to provide more affordable health care coverage, including family planning and other reproductive health services, for low income communities.
SB 703 Sponsor: Local Health Plans of California
For the first time in three years, Planned Parenthood has seen anti-choice legislation introduced by the California State Legislature. These measures seek to undermine and roll back protections put into law that ensure women’s access to timely and affordable reproductive health care, including sexual health information, family planning, and abortion services.
AB 1306 (Assemblymember Jim Donnelly)
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California OPPOSES SB 1306
About:
The bill duplicates current legal requirements regarding the information a patient must receive, both verbal and written, of the risks and benefits of medical treatments or procedures. It also restricts who a woman can choose to support her during counseling to immediate family members, denying women the comfort of their unmarried partner, aunt, minister, or a close friend during a difficult time.
Planned Parenthood is actively involved in preventing human trafficking and slavery, especially sex trafficking. Our health centers provide information regarding the terrible problem of human trafficking and slavery and provide information on resources available in the community as well as nationally. This type of information regarding human trafficking should be available through a number of sources, and not just specific health facilities. Singling out abortion providers for posting the National Human Trafficking Resource Center’s hotline telephone number is misguided.
Planned Parenthood health centers abide by a rigorous screening process for all patients to better identify signs of sexual coercion or abuse, including domestic violence and human trafficking. We refer victims to appropriate support services and take seriously our responsibility to report abuse to the authorities. A more helpful legislative effort to combat human trafficking would be to encourage ongoing training of physicians, nurses, hospital personnel and affiliated staff on human trafficking awareness, assessment and referral or reporting.
AB 1306 died in the Assembly Health Committee.
AB 1306 Opposition: American Civil Liberties Union, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists- California, CA Commission on the Status of Women, California Family Health Council, California Medical Association, NARAL Pro-Choice California, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
AB 1348 (Assemblymember Allan Mansoor)
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California OPPOSES SB 1348
About:
This bill would undermine successful policies that protect the health and safety of California’s young people.
AB 1348 weakens current law by changing parental consent requirements. Rather than allowing parents to opt their children out, parents would need to provide written permission for their children to participate in sexual health and HIV/ AIDS education or to take an anonymous and confidential survey. Keeping parental opt-out in place of written parental consent is important as a significant number of parents often fail to return school forms for a variety of reasons besides opposition to an activity or education program.
Californians overwhelmingly support the teaching of sexual health in our schools, and the default should be that students receive this vital education. Requiring written consent distorts the database of the critical California Healthy Kids Survey. The survey addresses school climate, health risks and behaviors, and youth resilience; it is used in making policy decisions to protect student health. The current system of parental opt-out respects parental rights without undermining the accuracy of the information gathered.
Finally, AB 1348’s blanket prohibition against students ever leaving school campus without written parental permission ignores a range of sensible reasons a teen may need to leave school, like illness or to access confidential medical services like family planning, mental health services and/or alcohol and drug abuse treatment.
AB 1348 was pulled from its hearing in the Assembly Education Committee by the author.
AB 1348 Opposition:American Civil Liberties Union, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists- California, California Adolescent Health Collaborative California, CA Commission on the Status of Women, California Community of Mental Health Agencies, California Family Health Council, California Medical Association, California School Health Centers Association, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, Los Angeles Unified School District Mental Health Association in California, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, San Francisco AIDS Foundation
