More Than A Magazine, A Movement
On Jan. 1, 2024, California will begin enforcing Assembly Bill 1084, a landmark bill in the movement for a more inclusive toy culture. Reinforcing the traditional gender binary through toys, for the first time in history, will be a civil offense.
The impetus for the legislation is straight out of 1970s toy campaigns against gender-based marketing—like Ms. magazine’s “Toys for Free Children” and the Ms. Foundation’s “Free to Be … You and Me.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit charges RealOptions Obria, a five-site crisis pregnancy center chain in Northern California, and the Ohio-based Heartbeat International with violating California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition law by falsely advertising “abortion pill reversal” as safe and effective.
“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance—not lies and misinformation,” Bonta said at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law that protects healthcare practitioners located in California who provide telehealth services and dispense medication for abortion, contraception and gender-affirming care to out-of-state patients. California joins five other states with similar telehealth provider shield laws.
“With Gov. Newsom’s signing of SB 345, healthcare providers physically located in California will be able to offer a lifeline to people in states that have cut off access to essential care,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner.
“We want people to know that unjust abortion bans are not stopping access: In all 50 states, people can receive these safe and effective pills by mail to take in the privacy of their own homes,” said Elisa Wells, co-director of Plan C.
In September 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed one of the country’s first laws explicitly prohibiting coercive control in intimate partner relationships. On Aug. 10, Vanessa A. Zecher—a judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County— entered a permanent restraining order against a man for coercive control domestic abuse. With campaigns for similar laws moving forward in several states, the case gives advocates concrete evidence of how coercive control laws are critical for freeing survivors from the grasp of abusive partners.
“This case is one of the first cases in the United States where coercive control was considered domestic violence in the absence of physical abuse,” said Lisa Fontes, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an expert on coercive control.
“I hope this case gives other victims hope that there is a pathway out,” said the wife’s attorney, Rebekah Frye. “I hope they will recognize that what they may think in their head or heart is normal—that they will realize it’s not. And then hopefully at some point in time, if they choose to leave, there will be a court, an attorney, a professional out there that will help them get out.”
In addition to being sentenced to juvenile hall, many young people are ordered by the court to pay money—otherwise known as restitution. Hefty restitution orders are common and saddle young people and their families with crushing debt, while failing to provide the intended relief to survivors. Restitution also makes it harder for overpoliced communities to break free from the carceral system. If a family cannot pay, parents can be subjected to wage garnishment, tax refund interceptions and property liens—threatening the financial stability of the entire family.
California’s youth restitution system is in dire need of re-imagination so that it can be functional and effective. The REPAIR Act, authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta and backed by Debt Free Justice California, does this by placing crime survivors on a secure pathway to receive accessible and timely funds through a newly formed fund.
It’s about 1,500 miles from Austin to Sacramento, but Texas and California lawmakers are a million miles apart on how to treat private data related to reproductive health.
The goalposts are moving, what used to be legal is now illegal in many places, and online speech and personal data are the new battleground—with millions of people’s health and lives in the balance.
California prides itself in having many survivor-friendly laws and in 2019 announced its much-hyped 10-year statute of limitations for civil remedies for adult survivors of sexual assault. Too many survivors have not benefited from this 2019 law (CCP 340.16).
But, as of Jan. 1, 2023, CCP 340.16 clearly outlines that the 10-year statute of limitations applies retroactively to sexual assaults that occurred before the statute was first enacted on Jan. 1, 2019. To rectify prior confusion, the amended statute provides for a three-year window, until Dec. 31, 2025, wherein survivors can file their civil claims for sexual assaults that occurred on or after Jan. 1, 2009.
Republicans in multiple states have introduced bills that would allow authorities to criminally prosecute women and pregnant people who have abortions and prosecute parents for obtaining gender-affirming care for their children. Reproductive justice advocates are concerned that police and prosecutors in these states will attempt to find these people using digital dragnet surveillance of their search histories and location data.
On Feb. 14, California Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) introduced Assembly Bill 793 to protect people from unconstitutional searches of their data. “No one should face or fear criminalization for their abortion or gender-affirming care. When we decide to end our pregnancies, we should be able to do so with dignity, and without fear of being arrested, investigated or jailed.”
Last week the California legislature passed a bill providing groundbreaking digital privacy protections for abortion-related communications sent through California tech companies. Assembly Bill 1242, introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), bars telecommunications companies in California from providing records of digital communications related to abortion to law enforcement officials.
“California continues to provide a blueprint for what is possible when policy centers people, equity, science and medicine; and trusts each person to make the best decisions for themselves and their family about their healthcare options.”
In a world where the meaning of “feminism” is increasingly being questioned by those on both the right and the left, a thoughtful contemplative examination of the term’s history and future can be hard to find. But the Oakland Museum of California’s “Hella Feminist” exhibition does just that.
(“Hella Feminist” is on view at the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland, California from July 2022-January 2023.)
