The California Legislature is entering its final week of floor sessions, and the stakes for families, children, and churches could not be higher. Lawmakers are rushing to push through some of the most radical bills we have seen all year, measures that undermine parental rights, enshrine abortion and assisted suicide, advance harmful transgender ideology, and even compel students to participate in religious practices contrary to their faith.
If these bills pass both the Assembly and the Senate, they will land on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for a final decision. He could veto them, sign them into law, or let them quietly take effect without his signature. While one bill, AB 84, has been delayed until next year, the others are still very much alive. Unless Christians speak out now, these proposals could soon reshape California in ways that directly oppose God’s design for life, family, and liberty.
This is a critical moment for the Body of Christ to stand firm. As Scripture reminds us, we are called to be “watchmen on the wall” (Ezekiel 33:7), warning our neighbors of danger and urging leaders to choose righteousness. Below is a summary of the twelve bills of concern that California Family Council has been tracking closely this year. We urge you to pray, share, and take action while there is still time.
AB 495: Cosmetic Fixes Won’t Cut It—This Bill Still Lets Strangers Claim Kinship Without Verification
After thousands of parents and parental rights advocates voiced strong opposition to AB 495, the bill’s author introduced amendments over the weekend. But these changes are little more than window dressing. At the heart of the controversy is the expansion of the Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit, a decades-old legal form that grants non-parents authority to make crucial decisions about a child’s education and healthcare. Critics are alarmed because AB 495 strengthens and broadens the use of this form in ways that undermine parental rights. To quiet opposition, lawmakers removed two provisions: one allowing unrelated adults with a “mentoring relationship” to sign the affidavit, and another explicitly stating that “a parent’s signature” is not required. While these tweaks may appear to address concerns, they fail to resolve the bill’s fundamental problems.
First, AB 495 still does not require parents to be notified or to give consent when someone else signs this affidavit for their child—a direct violation of parental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Second, although the bill now restricts use of the affidavit to relatives within the fifth degree of kinship, it contains no safeguards against fraud. A stranger can still falsely claim to be a relative, and because the form is not required to be notarized, there is no way to verify the truthfulness of that claim. In short, these amendments do little to protect parents or children, leaving families vulnerable to abuse and government overreach.
Bill location: Waiting for a Vote in the Senate and then the Assembly
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AB 727: Forces Schools to Advertise LGBTQ Suicide Hotline to Kids
This bill mandates that public schools serving grades 7-12, as well as all public universities, print the suicide hotline of The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, on every student identification card.
The Trevor Project is an influential, politically active organization with a budget of over 100-million-dollars that pushes vulnerable minors with thoughts of suicide to embrace LGBTQ identities and behaviors. On top of this, their suicide counselors introduce minors to the Trevor Space, an online community to connect vulnerable teens with unverified adults in online chat rooms that encourage them to reject their families and find affirming friends in clubs that explore various gender identities and sexual orientations. Read more details…
Bill Location: Waiting for a Vote in the Senate and then the Assembly
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AB 84: Dead for this year: Threatened Charter School Freedom and Homeschool Innovation
As of last Friday, AB 84 was made a two-year bill and will not be voted on this year. The bill elicited criticism for overreach masquerading as charter school reform. While the bill claimed to enhance accountability in charter education, its provisions inflicted disproportionate harm on law-abiding, nonclassroom-based (NCB) and homeschool charter models. AB 84 exploited isolated incidents of fraud to impose sweeping reforms that eroded parental rights, stifled small educational vendors, and jeopardized access for vulnerable students. Opposition from parental rights and charter school advocates eroded the bill’s support and led to its postponement. The bill can be brought up again next year for consideration.
Bill Location: Held in the Senate for reconsideration next year
SB 403: Making California’s Physician-Assisted Suicide Law Permanent
This bill permanently removes the sunset date from California’s End of Life Option Act (EOLOA), making physician-assisted suicide a permanent part of state law. Originally enacted in 2015, the EOLOA permits terminally ill adults deemed mentally capable to request from a medical provider self-administered lethal drugs to end their lives. SB 403 was supposed to have an expiration date of 2031, but this bill removes the date and makes the law permanent.
EOLOA normalizes and permanently enshrines physician-assisted suicide as a form of healthcare. This law violates the biblical standard that every human life is sacred, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and should be protected until natural death. Permanently legalizing assisted suicide undermines the inherent dignity of vulnerable individuals, including the elderly, the disabled, and the terminally ill, by suggesting that their lives are less worth living. The state should not protect killing innocent life by labeling it “compassion.” Instead, policies should promote quality palliative care, mental health support, and spiritual comfort as a just and loving response to suffering that values human dignity.
Bill Location: Waiting for a Vote in the Assembly and then the Senate
SB 59: Hides Court Records Changing Sex Designation and Punishes Truth Tellers
This bill seals all court records related to sex and name changes, and criminalizes the public disclosure of a person’s true identity. While presented as a privacy measure, this bill has grave implications for public safety, free speech, and the recognition of biological reality. The bill states a transgender identified person’s true sex is “intimate personal information entitled to protection under the right to privacy.” SB 59 is not merely a privacy measure; it is a direct assault on truth, liberty, and public order. It prioritizes ideology over evidence and secrecy over safety.
Bill Location: Waiting for a Vote in the Assembly and then the Senate
SB 418: Forcing Insurance Coverage for Harmful Trans Drugs and Surgeries
This bill compels insurance companies to cover experimental and dangerous gender transition procedures, including hormonal therapies, for minors and adults alike, regardless of the growing medical and ethical concerns surrounding these practices. This bill enshrines into law the funding of irreversible medical treatments that lack scientific consensus on their effectiveness and are increasingly associated with long-term harm, such as infertility, cardiovascular complications, cognitive impairment, and deep psychological regret. SB 418 falsely frames these interventions as “essential protections” despite mounting evidence to the contrary, and even extends coverage to children under the age of 19, youth who are not developmentally capable of giving truly informed consent. By mandating insurer participation in morally objectionable procedures, the legislation undermines parental rights, medical accountability, and the biological reality of sex.
Bill Location: Waiting for a vote in the Assembly and then the Senate
AB 260: Stripping Away Safeguards to Expand Risky Abortion Drug Access
This bill seeks to expand and protect the distribution of abortion-inducing drugs like Mifepristone in California by shielding healthcare providers from legal action and disciplinary measures, even if federal or other state laws would prohibit such practices. It allows pharmacists to dispense abortion drugs without including the prescriber’s name or the pharmacy’s information on the prescription label, making it harder to track who is providing these powerful medications. It also requires insurance plans to cover these drugs regardless of changes in federal approval and empowers state agencies to sidestep federal restrictions.
AB 260 dangerously prioritizes the political agenda of the abortion industry over the safety and well-being of women and girls. Abortion drugs like Mifepristone carry significant health risks, including hemorrhaging, infection, and death, yet this bill minimizes oversight and transparency. Worse, by stripping prescription labels of identifying information, AB 260 hides crucial medical accountability from patients and parents, making it easier to exploit vulnerable women and minors. This reckless approach treats the ending of unborn human lives as routine “healthcare,” ignoring the moral, physical, and emotional consequences.
Bill Location: Waiting for a vote in the Senate and then the Assembly
AB 54 Expanding Legal Protections for the Mailing and Distribution of Abortion Drugs
This bill reaffirms California’s commitment to making abortion drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol widely available without fear of civil, criminal, or professional consequences. The bill shields manufacturers, distributors, pharmacists, and health care providers from liability for mailing, shipping, transporting, or dispensing abortion drugs both within California and from out of state, retroactively protecting these actions dating back to January 1, 2020. AB 54 aims to insulate California’s abortion infrastructure from any restrictions that might come from federal changes or pro-life states’ laws after the Dobbs decision.
AB 54 entrenches and expands the reckless distribution of abortion drugs, treating the ending of unborn human life as routine “healthcare” and eliminating critical safeguards that protect women and girls. These abortion-inducing drugs carry serious health risks, including hemorrhage, infection, and emotional trauma, yet AB 54 sweeps aside all concerns in favor of promoting the abortion industry’s political goals.
Bill Location: Waiting for a vote in the Senate and then the Assembly
AB 1084: Lets Minors Change their Sex on Birth Certificate; Parents who believe in biology can’t object
This bill dramatically accelerates and simplifies the process for individuals, both adults and minors, to legally change their names on birth certificates and marriage licenses to match their self-declared gender identity. Then it prevents anyone from knowing the documents were ever changed. AB 1084 eliminates the public objection period for adult name changes, shortens the timeline for court approval of both adult and minor petitions to just six weeks, and eliminates publication requirements for gender-related name changes. The bill specifically prohibits courts from denying a name change of a minor based on parental concerns about a petitioner’s actual biological sex.
AB 1084 promotes the false ideology that a person’s sex can be changed, in direct contradiction to biological reality and biblical truth. While this bill nominally allows parental involvement in a minor’s name and gender change petition, it forbids parents from objecting based on the truth that sex/gender is determined by biology, not by self-perception. This effectively silences parents who are seeking to protect their children from irreversible confusion and harm. By fast-tracking major legal changes with minimal oversight and by rejecting any objections rooted in biological and moral reality, AB 1084 undermines parental rights, endangers children’s well-being, and furthers a harmful cultural agenda that leads vulnerable youth away from the hope and identity found in their Creator. Read more details…
Bill Location: Waiting for a Vote in the Senate and the Assembly
SB 497: Shielding Medical Transgender Procedures from Out-of-State Accountability
This bill seeks to further isolate California from other states’ efforts to uphold laws protecting minors by restricting how prescription drug information can be shared. Specifically, the bill prohibits California agencies, officials, and healthcare providers from sharing any information from the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), the state’s prescription drug monitoring program, with out-of-state authorities investigating transgender drugs and surgeries, also called “gender-affirming care,” unless a court-issued warrant or subpoena is obtained. CURES is an electronic database maintained by the California Department of Justice that tracks prescriptions for powerful and potentially dangerous controlled substances like opioids, testosterone, and other drugs. Its primary purpose is to prevent drug abuse, ensure appropriate prescribing practices, and assist law enforcement in curbing the diversion of addictive drugs. SB 497 rewrites the use of CURES, turning a vital tool for public health and safety into a shield for controversial and often irreversible transgender procedures, even for minors.
Bill Location: Waiting for a Vote in the Assembly and then the Senate
AB 45: Silencing Pro-Life Voices Through Geofencing Restrictions Around Abortion Clinics
This bill imposes sweeping restrictions on the use of geofencing technology around abortion clinics, prohibiting the collection, use, or sharing of location data of individuals entering these facilities. Supporters claim the bill protects privacy, but its true aim is to block pro-life organizations from using digital outreach, such as targeted ads offering alternatives to abortion, at the very moment when women are most vulnerable and might reconsider. By banning this form of communication only around abortion clinics, AB 45 discriminates against pro-life speech and shields abortion providers from public accountability. The bill further isolates California by refusing to cooperate with out-of-state legal investigations that could expose abortion-related malpractice or harm.
AB 45 is a direct assault on free speech, viewpoint neutrality, and due process. Instead of genuinely protecting privacy, the bill weaponizes civil penalties to silence pro-life voices, entrench abortion interests, and deny women access to information about life-affirming alternatives precisely when they need it most.
Bill Location: Waiting for a vote in the Senate and then in the Assembly
AB 26: Diwali new state holiday celebrated in schools
This bill would make Diwali, a Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist holiday, a recognized state holiday in California. The measure would not only allow individuals to take time off for Diwali, but also allow public schools to conduct exercises “celebrating the meaning and importance” of the festival. This bill goes beyond teaching about religion and instead mandates active participation in a religious observance, violating the First Amendment’s protections for religious freedom. Diwali celebrations often involve prayers and rituals directed toward Hindu deities such as Maa Lakshmi, Lord Rama, and Hanuman, monkey god. The bill, as written, risks compelling students and teachers to engage in practices that contradict their own religious convictions.
Bill Location: Waiting in the Senate for a vote and then in the Assembly.
