Abortion in state constitution + Infant formula price gouging + Transgender sanctuary bill

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LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE ABORTION CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

A new bill would ask voters to amend the California constitution to protect abortion rights — another move intended to strengthen the state’s identity as a reproductive safe haven.

Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, announced Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 on Wednesday.

The bill requires a two-thirds majority of both houses for a spot on the November ballot.

Atkins, Rendon and Gov. Gavin Newsom have been planning the measure since May, when Politico obtained a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that showed justices on the cusp of overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed federal abortion rights.

“We know we can’t trust the Supreme Court to protect reproductive rights, so California will build a firewall around this right in our state constitution,” Atkins, Rendon and Newsom said in May. “Women will remain protected here.”

The court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is expected sometime this month. Some states plan to ban abortions if there’s no longer a federal right to the procedure.

California leaders want to do just the opposite by making it easier for pregnant people to obtain abortions and reproductive healthcare.

Newsom’s revised May budget included funding to help uninsured low- and middle-income women access abortion care.

“Too many times, history has shown us that human rights must be enshrined in the constitution so that no one can infringe upon them,” Atkins said in a statement. “This is one such historic moment, and it must be met with a historic response.”

NEWSOM ISSUES ORDER AGAINST INFANT FORMULA PRICE-GOUGING

As California struggles with the national shortage of infant formula, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced steps intended to prevent price-gouging. He signed an executive order that prohibits retailers from charging more than a 10% increase over the price of formula on Feb. 17.

The order also gives tools to the attorney general and district attorneys to go after suspected gougers.

“California continues to take urgent action to support families feeling the impacts of the nationwide formula shortage. We’re connecting families in need with helpful resources and working to improve access for all parents and caregivers to keep California families safe and healthy,” Newsom said in a statement.

Also in response to the shortage, the California Department of Public Health’s Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) has expanded the list of formula brands which are eligible for state vouchers.

A REPUBLICAN’S (PRELIMINARY) PLURALITY

The election to replace termed-out California State Controller Betty Yee yielded a surprising result. Lanhee Chen, a Republican, had secured 37% of the vote by Wednesday morning’s count, enough to send him to a fall runoff, according to a New York Times summary of election results.

Chen, a public policy professor at Stanford who serves on the national Social Security Advisory Board, faced four Democrats and a Green Party candidate. He had secured about 1.2 million votes as of Wednesday morning. The four Democrats, led by Board of Equalization Chairwoman Malia Cohen with a 21% share, received nearly 2 million votes in total.

TRANSGENDER SANCTUARY BILL PASSES COMMITTEE VOTE

California is one step closer to becoming a sanctuary state for transgender children, their parents and their doctors.

SB 107, by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and co-authored by Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, would shield parents and doctors from laws in other states (such as Alabama) that have established criminal liability for providing children with gender-affirming medical treatment. The bill would block subpoenas from other states related to gender-affirming care and direct law enforcement to deprioritize enforcement of extradition warrants from other states involving such treatments.

“Senate Bill 107 is a bill that I wish I did not have to introduce,” Wiener said in introducing the bill before the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

“These laws are absolutely vile. They send a profound signal to LGBTQ children across the country, that they are not real and that they are going to be erased,” Wiener added. “We need to make sure these families have a place to go if they do not feel safe in the state where they reside.”

Wilson also spoke Wednesday, where she shared that she is the only known parent of a transgender child to serve in the Legislature.

She discussed how her son, a transgender man, took his time to transition, and that he did so with the support of his family.

“I can’t imagine that someone would intervene in that for our family,” Wilson said.

Testifying against the bill were Greg Burt of the conservative, Fresno-based California Family Council, and Erin Friday, a parent who identified as a Democrat and said she voted for same-sex marriage.

“Don’t make California a refuge for what will be seen as the largest medical scandal in history,” Friday said in testimony.

The committee voted 7-1 to approve the bill, according to Wiener’s office. It’s unclear which lawmaker voted against it.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“With the caveat that there are still many more votes to count and it’s too early to draw firm conclusions, it seems safe to say that turnout in yesterday’s California primary will not be held up as a shining example of citizen civic engagement.”

- Rob Pyers, research director for California Target Book, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• Californians have given more money this election cycle to a candidate running for U.S. Senate 2,500 miles from Sacramento than they have given to any candidate running in their own state, via Phillip Reese.

• Millions of Californians cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary — but less than one-third of all voters likely helped select the candidates who will compete in November, via Lindsey Holden.