The madness in California continues unabated, I’m afraid. While it didn’t receive much national attention, what with all of the other madness going on, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two new bills into law this week. Both supposedly deal with “sexual and reproductive rights” according to the Governor, but both are examples of California’s liberal Democrats working to undermine parental rights and silence any opposition to their agenda. The first, AB1356, deals with speech and activities in the vicinity of medical facilities that provide abortions. The second, AB 1184, is far more disturbing and it impacts parental rights when it comes to the medical care that their children receive. (Washington Examiner)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills on Wednesday relating to abortion rights, with both helping children hide medical information from parents.

The first bill, AB 1356, will create new offenses arising from recording or photographing patients or providers within 100 feet of the entrance to a reproductive health services facility. The other, AB 1184, will keep patient information confidential for patients who are not the primary policyholder for their health insurance. Healthcare services that patients can keep confidential include “reproductive health care and gender-affirming care,” according to the governor’s statement .

“California has been a leader in protecting access to sexual and reproductive rights, but as we’ve seen recently with unprecedented attacks on these rights, we can and must do more,” Newsom said in his statement.

AB 1356 deals almost exclusively with abortion providers and is being advertised as a response to the recent Texas abortion laws that went into effect this summer. But the bill has nothing to do with the actual performance of abortions. It creates new criminal penalties for anyone who takes photographs or records video of anyone going into or coming out of an abortion clinic from within 100 feet. Pretty much by definition, that means that the person in question would be standing on public property and filming other individuals who are also on public property.

Not only do they want to discourage anyone from protesting abortion centers, but they want to criminalize taking pictures in the vicinity. No matter how you may feel about abortion personally, I would hope that you could see how problematic it is to criminalize not only free speech but the sharing of information about things that occur on taxpayer-funded property such as a public sidewalk. Or perhaps you can’t.

The other bill, AB 1184, is far more insidious. In one section it claims to protect the privacy of the medical records of individuals who are “not the primary policyholder for their health insurance.” You shouldn’t need to hire a detective to figure out that the “individuals” in question are dependents who are on someone else’s health insurance plan, most frequently children using their parent’s plan. And there is no limitation on age provided.

The types of services that can be kept confidential from anyone, including the parent, include “reproductive care” and “gender-affirming care.” In other words, if a child wants to have an abortion or transgender drug therapy or even surgery, that information can also be kept secret from the parent or guardian. I would be inclined to use the word “madness” here yet again were I not afraid of wearing it out.

Stop and consider for a moment that under the California Department of Education’s Program Advisory on Medication Administration, pages 6-17, there are endless rules describing the conditions under which a minor under the age of 18 can either administer to themselves or have administered by school nurses or other officials, any sort of medication, including non-prescription drugs. One of the most common phrases found in those many paragraphs is “parent or guardian.” Without the permission of a parent or guardian, medications can only be administered under what are essentially life or death conditions.

Further consider that, in California, it is illegal to administer a tattoo to anyone under the age of 18. In fact, if you are found to have done so, you can literally be sent to jail. There isn’t even a parental consent option.

But now, while all of those other activities remain just as restricted, if a child wants to have an abortion, receive unapproved, puberty-blocking drugs, or even have irreversible genital mutilation surgery performed on them, they can now do so and it’s against the law to even let the parents know. These are literally life-altering decisions being made by children who are not deemed under the law to be capable of offering meaningful consent to sexual contact, smoking tobacco products, or drinking alcohol. Their minds are simply not developed fully enough to fully grasp the ramifications of such decisions at such an early age, or so we are assured by psychiatrists. But if they want to have a baby cut out of them or whack their genital organs off… have a field day, pal.

Yes, we’ll wear the word out even further. This is madness.