California Stood Up For Immigrants, Transgender People In 2013

2013 was a big year for the rights of immigrants, workers, women and children in California. The most populous state in the nation, led by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and a Democratic supermajority in the state Legislature, California this year passed groundbreaking laws that bucked the national trend of restricting abortion rights, rebuked the federal government's aggressive deportation program and led the country on workers' rights.

But 2014 is going to be even better -- that's when the laws start going into effect. Take a look at some of California's landmark laws from this past year below.

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

In a nationwide first, transgender students in California will be able to choose which restrooms they want to use starting in January. They will also be able to choose between boys' and girls' sports teams.

California is the first state to enact these policies as a state law, but the groundbreaking legislation, which goes into effect Jan. 1, could be suspended within days if opposition groups gather enough signatures to test the law before voters on the November ballot.

PAPARAZZI REFORM

Paparazzi photographers who harass and intimidate celebrities and their children will face stiffer penalties under a new law passed in 2013: a fine of up to $10,000 and up to a year in county jail. Victims can also sue for damages and attorney's fees, according to the Associated Press.

Before the bill passed, celebrity moms Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner joined forces to deliver some emotional testimony about how aggressive photographers regularly frighten their children.

"My 17-month-old baby is terrified and cries," said Garner during the August hearing. "My 4-year-old says, 'Why do these men never smile? Why do they never go away? Why are they always with us?'"

ABORTION RIGHTS

California's new law authorizes nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to perform aspiration abortions during the first trimester.

California joins Oregon, Montana, Vermont and New Hampshire in allowing nurse practitioners to perform early abortions, the AP reported. In 2013, California was the only state to enact a law expanding abortion access, The New York Times noted.

Legislators also strengthened an existing law that makes it illegal to damage or block access to abortion clinics, the AP reported.

MINIMUM WAGE

California's minimum wage will go from $8 an hour to $9 in July, and it will reach $10 an hour by 2016. California joins 12 other states that are raising their minimum wage in 2014.

TEXTING LOOPHOLE CLOSED

A legislative loophole made it possible for teens to use voice commands like Apple iPhone's Siri to text while driving, and California's lawmakers closed that loophole this year. Adults will still be able to use the hands-free texting feature while driving.

Teens have been banned from using cell phones on the road since 2007, but an apparent loophole opened up in 2012 when legislators passed a bill allowing drivers to use hands-free devices to send text messages and perform other functions, according to the AP.

GUN SAFETY LAWS

California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but lawmakers cracked down even further with laws that strengthen assault weapon permit requirements, require licensed psychotherapists to tell police about patients who threaten violence against others, and make it illegal to purchase gun parts that convert firearms into assault-style rifles.

The bills were written in reaction to mass shootings across the country, including the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. In contrast, the federal government hasn't been able to pass any gun safety laws since the Newtown massacre.

DOMESTIC WORKERS BILL OF RIGHTS

California joined New York and Hawaii in creating statewide protections for domestic workers in 2013. California's law allows domestic workers like nannies and personal health care aides to claim overtime wages for more than nine hours of work a day or 45 hours of work a week.

The law is expected to affect about 100,000 workers, but it's only temporary --legislators will have to vote on whether to renew the law in 2017, KPCC reported. It's also a pared-down version of the bill that was originally proposed in 2011, which included meal and rest breaks.

IMMIGRATION REFORM

The federal government is stalling on immigration reform, and Gov. Jerry Brown made it clear that California isn't going to wait around any longer. Brown signed into law a group of bills this year to protect undocumented immigrants, the most significant of which is the Trust Act.

The Trust Act limits local police's cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Communities, a federal deportation program that asks police departments to screen arrestees for immigration status and hold them for the feds if they're found to be undocumented. So far, Secure Communities has deported 100,000 Californians, most of whom did not have a serious criminal record, the Los Angeles Times reported, but the new law will require people to be charged with or convicted of a serious offense before being held for possible deportation by the feds.

Starting in 2015, California's undocumented immigrants will also be able to apply for driver's licenses. California joins Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, Maryland, Connecticut, Oregon, and the District of Columbia in passing the driver's license legislation in 2013, MSNBC reported. New Mexico, Washington and Utah also allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.

via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/31/new-california-laws-2014_n_4521694.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

California Lawmakers Seeks to Buck Anti-Abortion Trend

A California lawmaker, bucking a trend in other states to restrict abortion, has proposed to broaden access by permitting nurse-midwives and others to perform procedures now done only by doctors.

The measure by Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, would allow abortions by midwives, physician assistants and nurse practitioners in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Atkins said the bill is aimed at women in counties without abortion providers. The proposal goes before the Assembly Health Committee today.

California isn’t alone in its course. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has vowed to decriminalize late-term abortions when a woman’s health -- not just her life -- is at risk. A Washington plan to require insurers to cover abortions, backed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee, passed the state House only to be turned back in the Senate by a Republican-dominated coalition.

“California has a history of forward-looking, innovative solutions to problems, from technology to health care,” Atkins said by e-mail. “Even though we are a strongly pro-choice state, more than half our counties have no abortion provider.”

“It’s appalling,” said Camille Giglio, a lobbyist for California Right to Life, an anti-abortion group. “They are using the excuse of fewer abortion clinics to promote cheaper abortions for the clinics by lesser-trained people who are using abortions for their livelihood rather than a service to women.”

Democratic Control

While Democrats control both chambers of the California legislature, a similar bill failed last year after some Democrats said they were concerned that abortions performed by non-physicians wouldn’t be as safe. The bill was amended to allow nurse practitioners and other clinicians to perform non- surgical abortions, and was signed by Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat. Atkins’s bill would remove that restriction.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, in January published a study in the American Journal of Public Health that said that complications from abortions conducted by nurse practitioners, nurse midwives or physician assistants were “clinically equivalent” to those performed by physicians.

If approved by lawmakers, California would be the fifth state to permit non-physician abortions, joining Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon and Vermont, according to a UC-San Francisco study. Thirty-nine states require a licensed physician.

New Restrictions

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade struck down many state laws restricting abortion, statutes vary across the U.S. A flurry of new restrictions have been added in the past three years.

“States that are run by largely Republican and largely pro-life legislatures and governors are looking to push out from what they see as very substantial restrictions on their ability to create what they believe is better policy in this area,” said David Masci, a senior researcher with thePew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, based in Washington.

In Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback signed legislation April 19 that bans abortions on the basis of fetal gender, declares that life begins at fertilization and prohibits public funding for abortions.

In North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple signed a law on March 26 making it a felony for a doctor to perform a nonemergency abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Legislators in 13 other states, including Alabama, South Carolina, Iowa and Mississippi, introduced similar legislation in the first three months of this year, according to Guttmacher.

Close Clinics

Alabama lawmakers in April joined six other U.S. states to require doctors performing abortions to have hospital-admitting privileges, which the legislation described as a safety measure and opponents said is an effort to close clinics.

The California legislation was praised by abortion-rights advocates.

“We are excited to see positive, proactive legislation moving,” said Tarek Rizk, director of communication for Washington-based NARAL Pro-Choice America. “It’s inspiring to see that some states are tackling these pro-woman maneuvers when there are other states that have pushed very aggressive anti- woman and anti-abortion laws.”

via Bloomberg