California’s loud pro-life minority

The week after the California Legislature’s Feb. 18 deadline for submitting new bills, Jonathan Keller tallied up at least 11 new abortion-related proposals plus one pending in the Senate from last year.

Multiple bills would make it financially easier to get an abortion. One requires all health insurance policies to cover abortions with no deductibles. Another eases the physician oversight requirements for nurses performing abortions.

“It is highly likely that most if not all of these bills not only will have hearings but will even be enacted,” said Keller, CEO of the California Family Council.

Pro-abortion lawmakers have an overwhelming majority in both chambers of the California Legislature. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has clearly stated his intentions to make California an “abortion sanctuary” if the Supreme Court rules to give states more freedom to protect the unborn. State lawmakers have echoed that goal. Even though there’s little they can do to stop those bills, Keller and other California pro-life activists are focusing on encouraging local and community-level advocacy and educating voters about the radical pro-abortion agenda.

In early December, Newsom’s California Future of Abortion Council released a 14-page report outlining 45 policy recommendations for making the state an abortion sanctuary. They include investing in abortion funds, enacting legal protections for abortion businesses, and combating the work of pro-life pregnancy centers. Many of the policy recommendations appeared in the text of pro-abortion bills. The report estimated that, should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the number of out-of-state women coming to California for the procedure would increase from 46,000 to 1.4 million.

Though Keller has noticed some pro-life voters are leaving California for more conservative states, he said the number of churches speaking out against the pro-abortion agenda has grown in recent years. Pro-lifers remain in the minority, but, he said, they’re increasingly loud. More pastors are speaking out on abortion from the pulpit, and Christians have launched Bible studies and small groups for people who have had abortions and regret it.

Calvary Chapel Chino Hills is one of these “loud” churches. Gina Gleason directs Real Impact, a ministry at Calvary Chapel that puts out flyers, social media posts, email newsletters, and push notifications on its ministry app to encourage people to contact their representatives and speak against pro-abortion legislation. The church is also involved in organizing prayer gatherings outside of abortion facilities and throwing baby showers for moms who choose not to abort.

“I would say that there is movement in churches being more aware of their responsibility and their right to speak about being pro-life,” she said.

California ProLife Council chairman Brian Johnston said his group encourages voters to get involved in local elections to change the state’s political makeup from the ground up. He reminds voters that selecting the members of the school board and city council can help change local culture and politics. He’s encouraging pro-life city councils to pass resolutions to support safe-haven baby drop-off locations and pregnancy resource centers. These resolutions aren’t legally binding, but Johnston called them “a very powerful tool to educate and organize the local communities.”

Keller also works to point out to people who are not pro-life how extreme abortion advocates have become. He described the efforts to remove cost barriers for women seeking abortions in the state as “abortion scholarships” to attract out-of-state women.

“California has incredible research hospitals, we have incredible medical facilities, but we’re not talking about paying for scholarships to fly people to California so that they can get a heart bypass surgery. We’re only talking about paying for them to fly out here so they can get abortions,” he said. “They are treating abortion like no other medical procedure has been treated in the history of the country.”