Lies about Prop 1

One feature of the pro-life movement is that it lies. An example today from the Jesuits' America magazine ...

California bishops: Women deserve better than Prop. 1’s extreme expansion of late-term abortion.

As Americans prepare to cast their ballots this Election Day, Californians have a consequential vote to consider: Proposition 1. “Prop. 1” is extreme and would remove all restrictions on abortion in California, enshrining access to late-term abortion up until the moment of birth, even if both mother and child are healthy. And it would all be paid for by California tax dollars ....

The article is full of untruths, but let's just stick to the first paragraph ...

No, prop 1 does not ... not ... "remove all restrictions on abortion in California, enshrining access to late-term abortion up until the moment of birth, even if both mother and child are healthy".

This is the pro-life movement's favorite bugaboo ... late term abortion, on demand, up until the very moment of birth!!!

It's a lie. California law, like Roe, like the Women's Health Protection Act, provides for abortion access up until the time of viability, not up until birth. The only time something like this would happen is if the health or life of the mother was threatened and for some reason, the fetus could not be removed alive.

Remember that this is also true for all Republican abortion bans that give an exception for the life of the mother.

Here's existing CA abortion law ...

Abortion in California is legal up to the point of fetal viability (generally between 23 and 24 weeks' gestational age), or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant person. - Abortion in California

There is nothing in prop 1 that changes California law - it just puts it into the state constitution. Here are the exact words of prop 1 ... Constitutional Right to Reproductive Freedom. Legislative Constitutional Amendment ...

Proposition 1 changes the California Constitution to say that the state cannot deny or interfere with a person’s reproductive freedom and that people have the fundamental right to choose:

- Whether or not to have an abortion.

- Whether or not to use contraceptives.

The reason this is happening is not because California is extremist. The reason for prop 1 is that conservatives overturned a constitutional right women depended on for 50 years, and because conservatives are now planning a national ban on abortion. It's conservatives and the pro-life movement who are the extremists.