GUEST OPINION Legislators introduce bills to expand state control

When will ridiculous government mandates and requirements end?

When will Californians stop forcing their beliefs/ faith/ideology on others?

Shame on the California Legislature Women’s Caucus for introducing 12 of 15 bills to expand state control that include no exemptions for local governments, school boards, private employers or residents.

Please make time to oppose two newly introduced bills:

1) Assembly Bill 598 (sponsored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland) requires all California public school districts to survey all seventh through 12th graders under the California Healthy Kids Survey and requires student participation! This is unlawful!

Surveying students is not the role of schools. Requiring student participation is a violation of their constitutional rights, the California Education Code, student and parent rights to privacy, and freedom of participation while captive on campus.

Schools must stick to academics, vocational training and instruction.

We must demand local control of our public school districts by our elected trustees. Push back.

2) Assembly Bill 1432 requires all insurance coverage in California to cover gender affirming care, abortions. California employers and California residents must demand the right to have options in insurance coverage or no coverage. This is another example of overreach.

I write as a lifelong advocate of medical autonomy, privacy, freedom of individual choice, and not wanting to pay for the choices of others. As a local Planned Parenthood director in the 1980s, I advocated for teen opportunities to learn from qualified medical instructors to get questions answered. The religious community supported my efforts.