Staff Reports
If enacted in November's referendum, Proposition 1 would add language to the California Constitution guaranteeing the right to abortion up until the moment of birth.
As for the actual words of Proposition 1, they are as follows:
A person has the right to choose whether or not to use contraceptives, and the state must not infringe on that choice or any other aspect of that person's reproductive autonomy. This provision is meant to support the First Amendment's guarantee of privacy and the Seventh Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Nothing herein shall be construed to limit or restrict any individual's right to privacy or equal treatment under the law.
According to the digest of legislation, "existing law, the Reproductive Privacy Act, declares that every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to personal reproductive decisions and prohibits the state from denying or interfering with a person's right to choose or obtain an abortion before viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the person." To all appearances, Proposition 1 allows abortion up until the moment of delivery.
A new poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies finds that 71% of Californians support Proposition 1, while only 18% are opposed to it. The poll's statement indicates that 68 percent of voters are against the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide.
As the San Jose Mercury News notes, it appears that Proposition 1 has support even in more conservative parts of the state.
However, the poll question and the proposition as written confuse two separate but related topics: abortion and contraception. It is not evident which part of a compound question caused the polling outcome to be what it was.
Recent statements from the California ProLife PAC, which is opposed to Proposition 1, claim that the measure will prevent the passage of laws protecting women from abortion. It will secure the continuation of late-term abortions that are not done for any medical reason, as well as the current policy of unlimited funding for abortion and "tourism abortions." It ensures that the government will continue to oppose and try to stifle crisis pregnancy centers.
Democrats are banking on the passage of Proposition 1 to get their voters out to the polls in close congressional contests.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on BREITBART.
