The 2021 List of Family Values Killer Bills is Out and It’s Bad

Last week California Globe presented the CalChamber’s list of Job Killer bills. This week we are presenting the Capitol Resource Institute’s list of family values killer bills. Focused on life, parental rights, education, religious liberty, CRI advocates for pro-family issues, and vehemently opposes legislation that interferes with and undermines Judeo-Christian values.

Not all of the bills on their list are killers, but far too many these bills run counter to values of freedom, religious liberty, and family values.

Here is their list:

Conscience Rights 

AB 705: Health Care: Facilities: Medical Privileges by Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-54)  OPPOSE

Prohibits a health facility from requiring a physician or surgeon, as a condition of obtaining or maintaining clinical privileges, to agree to comply with criteria, rules, regulations, or other policies or procedures that are not knowingly and explicitly ratified, issued, or promulgated by the medical staff, that directly or indirectly prohibit, limit, or restrict the ability of the physician or surgeon to provide a particular medical treatment or service that falls within the scope of their privileges.

AB 797: Health Care Coverage: Treatment for Infertility by Buffy Wicks (D-15) OPPOSE

Requires every health care service plan contract or health insurance policy that is issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2022, to provide coverage for the treatment of infertility. Deletes the exemption for religiously affiliated employers, health care service plans, and health insurance policies, from the requirements relating to coverage for the treatment of infertility.

Education

AB 101: Pupil Instruction: High School Graduation Requirements by Jose Medina (D-61)  OPPOSE

Adds the completion of a one-semester course in ethnic studies, meeting specified requirements, to the high school graduation requirements commencing with pupils graduating in the 2029-30 school year, including pupils enrolled in a charter school. Expressly authorizes local educational agencies, including charter schools, to require a full-year course in ethnic studies at their discretion.

SB 217: Comprehensive Sexual Health Education and HIV Education by Brian Dahle (R-1)  SUPPORT

Requires a specified notice to parents and guardians of pupils and the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education to be translated if certain conditions are met, as specified. The bill would require the governing board of a school district to adopt a policy specifying how parents and guardians of may inspect the written and audiovisual educational materials used in comprehensive sexual health education and HIV prevention education, including applicable translations and updates or changes to the materials, within prescribed timeframes, at each school site and, except as provided, publicly posted on the school district’s internet website or, if applicable, on a school district’s parent or guardian portal.

SB 224: Pupil Instruction: Mental Health Education by Anthony Portantino (D-25)  OPPOSE

Requires each school district to ensure that all pupils in grades 1 to 12, inclusive, receive medically accurate, age-appropriate mental health education from instructors trained in the appropriate courses at least once in elementary school, at least once in junior high school or middle school, as applicable, and at least once in high school. Requires that instruction to include, among other things, reasonably designed instruction on the overarching themes and core principles of mental health.

AB 309: Pupil Mental Health: Model Referral Protocols by Jesse Gabriel (D-45)  OPPOSE

Requires the State Department of Education to develop model referral protocols, as provided, for addressing pupil mental health concerns. Requires the department to consult with various entities in developing the protocols, including current classroom teachers and administrators.

AB 366: Welfare and Institutions Code: Foster Youth by Blanca Rubio (D-48)  OPPOSE

Relates to existing Law that requires a county social worker to create a case plan for foster youth within a specified timeframe after the child is introduced into the foster care system. Requires a county social worker or probation officer to include in certain reports to the juvenile court a factual discussion of whether the youth or no minor dependent has received comprehensive sexual health education.

AB 552: Integrated School-Based Behavioral Health Program by Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-65)  OPPOSE

Establishes the Integrated School-Based Behavioral Health Partnership Program to provide prevention and early intervention for, and access to, behavioral health services for pupils. Authorizes a county behavioral health agency and the governing board or governing body of a local educational agency to agree to collaborate on and implement an integrated school-based behavioral health partnership program.

AB 1378: State Department of Education: Spending Authority by Carlos Villapudua (D-13)  OPPOSE

This bill would require the State Department of Education to establish a peer-to-peer mental health support model program to enable pupils in high school to act as peer supporters for fellow pupils on campus. The bill would require each governing board of a school district, on or before July 1, 2022, to implement the model program on each school site of the school district that contains a high school. By imposing new duties on school districts, the bill would create a state-mandated program.

Free Speech 

SB 238: Fair Employment and Housing Protections by Melissa Melendez (R-28)  SUPPORT

Adds “political affiliation” as a protected characteristic in connection with the employment and housing provisions of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

SB 249: Educational Equity: Political Affiliation by Melissa Melendez (R-28)  SUPPORT

Includes “political affiliation” for purposes of provisions prohibiting discrimination in education.

AB 465: Professional Fiduciaries: Prelicensing and Renewal by Adrin Nazarian (D-46)  OPPOSE

Requires the pre licensing education courses for professional fiduciaries to include at least one hour of instruction in cultural competency, as defined by the bill. Requires a licensee to complete at least one hour of instruction in cultural competency every 3 years as a condition of license renewal or restoration.

AB 1379: False Campaign Speech and Online Platform Disclosures by Eduardo Garcia (D-56)  OPPOSE

Prohibits a committee, within a certain number of days of an election, from distributing a false material statement of fact relating to the candidate or measure with the intent to deceive a voter into voting for or against the candidate or measure. Requires an online platform to maintain a description of the audience requested by the committee and the types of personal information used to target advertisements.

AB 1440: Civil Rights Crimes by Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-16)  OPPOSE

Relates to existing law which makes it a misdemeanor to, by force or threat of force, willfully injure, intimidate, interfere with, oppress, or threaten another person in the free exercise or enjoyment of a right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of this state or by the Constitution or laws of the United States in whole or in part because of one or more of specified actual or perceived characteristics of the victim. Makes the above crime punishable either as a misdemeanor or as a felony.

AB 655: California Law Enforcement Accountability Reform Act by Ash Karla (D-27)  OPPOSE

Requires the background investigation for peace officer candidates to include an inquiry into whether a candidate for specified peace officer positions has engaged in membership in a hate group, participation in hate group activities, or public expressions of hate, as those terms are defined. Provides that certain findings would disqualify a person from employment.

Gender

AB 218: Change of Gender and Sex Identifier by Christopher Ward (D-78)  OPPOSE

Recasts provisions relating to new birth certificates to provide for a change in gender and sex identifier and to specify that a person who was issued a birth certificate by this state, rather than a person born in this state, may obtain a new birth certificate. Authorizes a person to file a petition with the superior court for a court order to issue a new marriage license and certificate, or birth certificate for their minor or adult child to reflect the person’s change in gender and sex identifier.

AB 1084: Gender Neutral Retail Departments by Evan Low (D-28)  OPPOSE

AB 245: Educational Equity: Student Records: Name and Gender by David Chiu (D-17)  OPPOSE

Requires a campus of the University of California, California State University, or California Community Colleges to update a former student’s records to include the student’s updated legal name or gender if the institution receives government-issued documentation, as described, from the student demonstrating that the former student’s legal name or gender has been changed.

AB 609: College Athlete Race and Gender Equity Act by Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-54)  WATCHING

Enacts the College Athlete Race and Gender Equity Act. Requires institutions of higher education with sports in which 50% of the institution’s total sports revenue in the state exceeds the total aggregate grant-in-aid athletics scholarship amount provided to the institution’s college athletes in the sport during the reporting year to pay a name, image, and likeness royalty fee to each qualifying college athlete, as specified.

AB 1094: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data Collection by Joaquin Arambula (D-31) OPPOSE

Requires the Department of Public Health to establish a 3-year pilot program in up to 6 counties that agree to participate, for the identification and collection by coroners and medical examiners of gender identity and sexual orientation in cases of violent death. Requires the counties to be trained in the data collection by a public or private agency with expertise in identifying and collecting clinical data pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Parental Rights 

AB 272: Enrollment Agreements by Kevin Kiley (R-6)  SUPPORT

Authorizes a minor to disaffirm a provision in an educational institution’s enrollment agreement that purports to waive a legal right, remedy, forum, proceeding, or procedure, regardless of whether a parent or legal guardian has signed the enrollment agreement on the minor’s behalf, to the extent that the provision is construed to require the minor to waive a legal right, remedy, forum, proceeding, or procedure arising out of a criminal sexual assault or criminal sexual battery, as defined, on that minor.

SB 14: Pupil Health: Employee and Pupil Training by Anthony J. Portantino (D-25)  OPPOSE

Includes as another type of required excused absence an absence that is for the benefit of the behavioral health of the pupil. Requires the State Department of Education to identify an evidence-based training program for a local educational agency to use to train classified and certificated school employees having direct contact with pupils on youth behavioral health.

AB 76: Interdistrict Transfer of Pupils by Kevin Kiley (R-6)  SUPPORT

Prohibits a school district of residence from prohibiting the transfer of a pupil who is not receiving in-person instruction to a school district of proposed enrollment that is offering in-person instruction if the school district of proposed enrollment approves the application for transfer.

Public Safety 

 SB 57: Controlled Substances: Overdose Prevention Program by Scott Wiener (D-11)  OPPOSE

Authorizes the City and County of San Francisco, the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Oakland to approve entities to operate overdose prevention programs for persons that satisfy specified requirements, including, among other things, providing a hygienic space supervised by trained staff where people who use drugs can consume preobtained drugs, providing sterile consumption supplies, and providing access or referrals to substance use disorder treatment.

SB 615: Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a Minor by Melissa Melendez (R-28)  SUPPORT

This bill would make changes to existing law and only exempt a person from registering on the sex offenders list if the person is not more than 3 years older than the minor. The bill also states a person convicted of statutory rape must register if they are more than 3 years older than the minor.

AB 1509: Enhancements: Firearms by Alex Lee (D-25)  OPPOSE

Relates to existing law which imposes a sentence enhancement in the state prison of 10 years for personally using a firearm in the commission of specified felonies, 20 years for personally and intentionally discharging a firearm in the commission of those felonies, and 25 years to life for personally and intentionally discharging a firearm and causing great bodily injury or death to any other person during the commission of those felonies. Reduces those enhancements to 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively.

Religious Liberty 

SB 397: Emergency Powers: Essential Service: Religious Services by Brian Jones (R-38)  SUPPORT

Declares the Religion is Essential Act and would, during a state of emergency or local emergency, require the Governor or the local government to deem religious services to be an essential service and to be necessary and vital to the health and welfare of the public. Prohibits the state and local government from taking a discriminatory action against a religious organization.

Visit Capitol Resource Institute for all of the bills they are watching.