Exclusive — California Grassroots Activists Oppose Democrats’ ‘Intentionally Vague’ Attempt to Codify Late-Term Abortion

When the Supreme Court issued its historic Dobbs decision in June and returned the issue of abortion to the states, some lawmakers immediately set out to protect the unborn. Others, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), began defiantly scheming to make their states even more pro-abortion.

Californians will now decide in less than two weeks during the midterm elections whether to codify the “right” to abortion up to birth in the state’s Constitution by voting on a ballot initiative called Proposition 1 — a measure that, if passed, can only be undone by another ballot initiative. Proponents of the initiative claim it will shore up “reproductive rights.” Grassroots activists, Christians, and conservatives alike warn the “intentionally vague” wording of Proposition 1 could lead to much more sinister outcomes.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Sounds the Alarm

One of the most noticeable aspects of the initiative is its briefness and lack of parameters and definitions clarifying what “reproductive freedom” means.

The text of Proposition 1 is as follows:

The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives. This section is intended to further the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by Section 1, and the constitutional right to not be denied equal protection guaranteed by Section 7. Nothing herein narrows or limits the right to privacy or equal protection.

The ADF released a legal memo on Proposition 1, advising that the initiative’s use of the broad term “reproductive freedom”  means “far more than just unfettered, unregulated access to abortion, contraceptives, and sterilization.” The ADF describes itself as the “world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights” and has secured 14 victories at the U.S. Supreme Court since 2011.

Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Memo on the Impact of California’s Proposition 1 by Breitbart News on Scribd

“California’s Proposition 1 ‘Reproductive Freedom’ ballot initiative would amend California’s constitution to create a complete license to ‘reproductive freedom’ for any ‘individual.’ This not only includes procuring abortions at any stage of pregnancy, including the gruesome partial birth abortion procedure, but it could also allow men to avoid child support payments, force the state to procure women to be surrogate mothers, and allow children to remove healthy reproductive organs without parental knowledge or consent,” the ADF warned. 

“The amendment would endanger both mothers and their children by prohibiting common-sense limits and regulations on abortion, and it would undermine the state’s ability to protect other fundamental rights, like conscience rights of doctors and nurses to not participate in ending a human life, parental rights to raise and educate children, rights of association for hospitals and care centers to hire mission-oriented employees, the free speech right to advocate for life-affirming care, and the fundamental right to life of every human being,” the ADF continued. 

‘Seismic Shift’ 

Much to Newsom’s likely chagrin, Proposition 1 is not going to pass without a fight. Grassroots activists with Stop Proposition 1  have been urgently working to inform Californians about the potential ramifications of the initiative’s passage.

“We are confident that when the voters know [what Proposition 1 is] that they will oppose it. But California is a big state, and so getting all the voters to know what this does is a big job,” Stop Proposition 1 co-director Karen England told Breitbart News during a phone call on Wednesday.

The political action committee’s efforts extend up and down the Golden State, with roughly 1,000 people making phone calls and passing out door hangers, both in English and in Spanish, England said. People from out of state are also giving their time to the cause by phone banking from afar. On Tuesday, the organization is opening up a phone banking office in Southern California where “Stop Prop 1 staff will be there every day just to rally the troops,” she added.

Breitbart News also learned exclusively that Stop Proposition 1 is fighting Newsom’s pro-abortion billboard campaign — which features the misuse of a Bible verse to justify the dismemberment of children in the womb — with its own large-scale billboard campaign warning Californians about the ballot initiative. The billboards are located in Los Angles and San Francisco in both English and Spanish and read “Prop 1 allows late-term abortion.”

Stop Proposition 1 is also engaging the help of one of the pro-life movement’s fiercest allies, the Christian church. England said the organization has been speaking at churches and at large church events, and has procured the help of Jack Hibbs, pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. Hibbs has notoriously been a thorn in the side of Newsom, having opened up his church alongside Grace Community Church Pastor John MacArthur in spite of the governor’s lockdown mandate.

“The church transcends the governments of this world and the politics of this world because the church is a living, breathing, divine institution,” Hibbs said at the time.

Hibbs as been bringing awareness to the dangers of the initiative to his congregation, on social media, and in a article published on the Christian Post, in which he called the measure an “abomination.”

“As a pastor, I’m called to defend life. The Bible says I’m called to defend those who are destined for crushing, those who have no voice for themselves. If that doesn’t describe an unborn child, I don’t know what does,” he wrote in part. “…Sane and compassionate people never want to see images of children being torn limb-by-limb from their mothers, moments before birth. Dr. Kermit Gosnell performed such horrific procedures. He is now in prison for the rest of his life. Maybe Governor Newsom and the California state legislators should join him.”

England contended that if more pastors had Hibbs’ bravery to stand up against the abortion movement, commonsense voters could “take California back.”

“We have 58 counties and only a handful of them are deep blue — so there’s plenty of red counties up and down the state of California. And we’ve always argued that if the church would just get out and vote their values that we could take California back and get rid this progressive nanny state government,” she said.

“And so we’re all very thankful for Pastor Jack Hibbs because he will speak truth from the pulpit. And that’s an important thing to do because a lot of the left has convinced the church that that life is a political issue and it’s not — the issue of life is a biblical issue. All churches should be speaking out on that issue. It is clearly a biblical issue that politicians have hijacked,” she continued. 

England said if the initiative does pass, it would represent a “seismic shift” for the state and potentially become a “template” for the rest of the nation. 

“They like their values imposed on everyone — as much as they say we’re trying to impose our values, they want a free-for-all,” she said. California’s progressive policies show “total lack of value and respect [for human life]. They believe they are God, and each individual is God, and there is no other God.”

What Do Californians Think of Proposition 1? 

“We know through the polling that people who even consider themselves pro-choice do not support late-term abortion,” England said, noting that California Democrats often obscure the meaning of initiative by claiming it will simply codify existing abortion law.  The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe notably had no effect on California, which already allows abortion up until the viability of the fetus — usually 24 to 28 weeks — with exceptions for the health or life of the mother. 

“I don’t know why everyone was marching in the streets in California and shutting down freeways because abortion is legal,” England said. 

In mid-October, the Capitol Resource Institute, of which England is the president, and Rasmussen Reports released a poll showing likely California voters’ attitudes toward the initiative and abortion as a whole. The poll contrasts results from another survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports and Real Impact to show the shift of Californians away from extreme abortion policies. 

Between August and October, support for Proposition 1 “decline significantly” from 66 percent to 59 percent. However, only 14 percent of California voters say abortion should be legal “at any time during pregnancy up to the moment of birth” and 68 percent believe it “should not be legal past three months into a pregnancy.”

The contradictory results may indicate that many Californians are unaware of how the vague language of Proposition 1 may lead to late-term abortions, which as indicated by polling, only 14 percent support. That dynamic is similar to convoluted post-Roe polling, which often shows that voters disagree with the Dobbs decision, but support abortion law being decided at the state level — which is exactly what Roe’s overturning achieved.

“The more Californians learn that Proposition 1 would legalize late-term abortion, the more they oppose it,” England said at the time. “This isn’t surprising since 79 percent of likely California voters said in an earlier poll that they would not support killing a child up until birth. Gavin Newsom and the radicals in Sacramento have authored one of the most extreme pieces of abortion legislation ever placed on a ballot. It’s my hope that the good people of California don’t fall into Newsom’s trap.”