California abortion laws
California’s laws protect the abortion industry, rather than unborn children or their mothers.
California repealed most of its laws restricting abortion several years before the 1973 United States Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade decision decriminalized abortion nationally. In 1967, the California Legislature passed the Therapeutic Abortion Act, which allowed doctors to commit abortions on babies up to 21 weeks of pregnancy who were conceived in rape or if the pregnancy threatened the physical or mental health of the mother. Then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed it into law on June 14, 1967.
In 1969, in its People vs. Belous decision, the California Supreme Court found that the United States Constitution and California state constitution recognize a right to privacy that includes a right to abortion. People vs. Belous effectively legalized abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy in California.
Today, deliberately killing an unborn baby is legal in California
except if:
1. The mother does not consent to the baby’s killing
AND
2. The baby is at least 8 weeks old
In this case, the abortion is murder. (1)
California statutes also declare some abortions to be “unauthorized.”
An abortion is unauthorized in California if:
1. The killer is not the mother of the child
AND
2. a. The killer does not have a state-approved medical license or nursing certificate to commit abortions
OR
b. i) The baby, before being killed, was able to survive outside the womb
AND
ii) In the abortionist’s medical judgment, the baby was able to survive outside the womb
AND
iii) In the abortionist’s medical judgment, the pregnancy posed NO risk to the mother’s physical or mental health (2)
However, there is no civil or criminal penalty for an “unauthorized” abortion performed with the consent of the mother.
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California law declares that every woman has a right to abortion and that no state or municipal government may restrict her access to abortion. (3)
Minors may undergo an abortion without their parents’ knowledge or consent. A law on the books mandates that a minor girl must either obtain her parents’ permission or go to court and get a judicial bypass before she has an abortion, but the California Supreme Court struck down the law in 1997, citing minor girls’ alleged right to privacy, and the law was never enforced.(4) The law was repealed in 2023.
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health care program, covers abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. California law requires that almost all health insurance plans, both public and private, cover abortion without any out-of-pocket cost to the patient.
California law requires that, at the request of patients, insurers hide “sensitive” services such as abortions in their communications with policyholders. In other words, children on their parents’ policy can use their insurance to pay for abortions and ask the insurance company to hide it from their parents. (5)
California law requires that state-funded universities provide abortions on campus. (6)
In November 2022, California voters approved Proposition 1, which added abortion and other unspecified “intimate decisions” to the California state constitution.
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The amendment reads:
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.
​In 2025 legislative session, the California legislature has introduced multiple bills that would protect and expand abortion if they become law:
AB 40 would amend the Health and Safety code to require emergency rooms to perform abortions as an “emergency service.”
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AB 45 would prohibit geofencing of abortion clinics, prohibit abortion clinics from releasing patient information in response to subpoenas seeking to enforce abortion restrictions, and would allow a doctor to prescribe abortion drugs without listing his name on the label as the prescribing physician.
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AB 54 would give legal immunity to suppliers of abortion drugs.​
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AB 67 would authorize the Attorney General to investigate and sue for $25,000 anyone who “appears” to have violated or be about to
violate the Reproductive Privacy Act, which forbids a government entity to “interfere with” a woman’s choice to have an abortion. **This bill failed in committee June 6.**
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AB 260 would delete a currently unenforced law requiring parental notification before a minor’s abortion, remove penalties for aiding a “criminal abortion,” and remove manufacturing and labeling requirements for abortion drugs.
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AB 302 would prohibit California abortion clinics from honoring other state’s subpoenas seeking medical information related to abortions.​
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AB 551 would award grants to train and equip hospital emergency departments and other health facilities to do abortions. **This bill failed in committee June 6.**
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AB 1500 would require the state health department to frequently update the government abortion website and to run a public awareness campaign about the website’s existence. **This bill failed in committee June 6.**​