Abortion in California is legal up to the point of fetal viability. In 2022, 67% of California voters approved Proposition 1, which amended the Constitution of California to explicitly protect the right to abortion and contraception.
In response to a report by NARAL that found crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) providing misleading and inaccurate information to pregnant women, the California Legislature passed the Reproductive FACT (Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency) Act (AB-755), which required CPCs to post visible notices that other options for pregnancy, including abortion, are available from state-sponsored clinics. It also mandated that unlicensed centers post notice of their unlicensed status. The centers, typically run by Christian non-profit groups, challenged the act on the basis that it violated their right free speech. The law was subsequently struck down as unconstitutional in a 5–4 decision along ideological lines by the U.S. Supreme Court. California allows certain qualified non-physician health professionals, such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse midwives, to do first-trimester aspiration abortions, and to prescribe drugs for medical abortions. There have been a number of abortion-related cases before the California Supreme Court, the California Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California since 1969.
There have been several deaths in California as a result of illegal abortions, including 35 in 1966 and 1967. California uses its own funds to cover all "medically necessary" abortions sought by low-income women under Medicaid. 88,466 were state-funded in 2010.
California has an active abortion rights activist community. Society for Human Abortion was founded in 1963 in San Francisco. People in California participated in #StopTheBans protested in May 2019, including at protests in San Francisco and Los Angeles. There is also an active anti-abortion rights community. Singer Pat Boone announced he recorded a song titled "Sixteen Thousand Faces" about the Los Angeles fetus disposal scandal in May 1985. The first Walk for Life was held on January 22, 2005. A number of acts of anti-abortion rights violence have also taken place in the state, including an attempted bombing in July 1987, fires at clinics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and acts of violence in San Francisco in February 1995, Modesto in March 2003, and Costa Mesa in March 2022.
History On May 31, 2019, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation explaining California's abortion laws, and encouraged women from states seeking to restrict a woman's ability to get an abortion to come to California for an abortion if she needs one. The statement read in part, "California will continue to uphold women's equality and liberty by protecting their reproductive freedom, educating Californians about their rights to reproductive freedom, welcoming women to California to fully exercise their reproductive rights, and acting as a model for other states that want to ensure full reproductive freedom for women."
Legislative history In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother, given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. By 1950, the state legislature would pass a law stating that a woman who had an abortion, or actively sought to have an abortion, regardless of whether she went through with it, were guilty of a criminal offense.
An abortion ban was in place by 1900, and by 1950, it was a criminal offense for a woman to have an abortion. In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code, as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion, and California adopted a version of this code. In 2002, the California State Legislature passed a law guaranteeing women the right to have an abortion "prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman".
In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code, as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion: "If ... there is substantial risk that the continuance of the pregnancy would gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother, or that the child would be born with grave physical or mental defect, or that the pregnancy resulted from rape, incest, or other felonious intercourse." In 1967, the California State Legislature adopted a form of this into law, but did not allow an exception for birth defects. Alaska, Hawaii, California, and New York were the only four states that made abortion legal between 1967 and 1970 that did not require a reason to request an abortion. California amended its abortion law in 1967 to address the disconnect between legal and medical justifications for therapeutic exceptions. This change made them one of the most progressive states in the country when it came to abortion rights. The bill was signed into law by Governor Ronald Reagan, after the legislature removed as a reason for legal abortion that a fetus had severe physical deformities. State law in 1971 required that any woman getting a legal abortion in the state needed to be a resident for some specific period between 30 and 90 days.
California Reproductive Privacy Act In 2002, the California State Legislature passed a law, the California Reproductive Privacy Act (SB 1301, Kuehl), that said: "The state may not deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose or obtain an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman," and repealed several abortion criminalization laws. The state was one of ten states in 2007 to have a customary informed consent provision for abortions.
Based on a report prepared by NARAL Pro-Choice America, which alleged that Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) were providing misleading and inaccurate information, the California Legislature passed the Reproductive FACT (Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency) Act (AB-755) in October 2015. It required any licensed health-care facility that provided care services related to pregnancies to post a notice that stated: "California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women." The law set provisions where this notice was to be posted, and established civil fines if facilities did not comply. The act required unlicensed facilities which offered certain pregnancy-related services to post a notice stating: "This facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the State of California, and has no licensed medical provider who provides or directly supervises the provision of all of the services, whose primary purpose is providing pregnancy-related services." The Supreme Court of the United States found that the law violated the First Amendment in 2018, in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra.
As of 2017, California, Oregon, Montana, Vermont, and New Hampshire allow certain qualified non-physician health professionals, such as physicians' assistants, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse midwives, to do first-trimester aspiration abortions, and to prescribe drugs for medical abortions. In August 2018, the state had a law to protect the right to have an abortion. As of May 14, 2019, the state prohibits abortions after the fetus is viable, generally some point between week 24 and 26. This period uses a standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1992, with the Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling.
On May 20, 2019, the California State Senate passed Senate Bill 24, the College Student Right to Access Act. The Act requires public state universities to offer mifepristone, the abortion pill, to female students at zero cost by January 1, 2023; funding for the program will be paid for through insurance and private grants, with $200,000 to each University of California and California State University health clinic for training and equipment. The bill was approved by both the California State Assembly and California State Senate, as amended on September 13, 2019, was enacted by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 11, 2019, and went into effect on January 1, 2020. University clinics also have to set aside an additional $200,000 each to set up a student hotline to provide information to women seeking advice and assistance. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Connie Leyva.
In May 2022, State Senate President pro tempore Toni Atkins said she would introduce a state constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to an abortion after a draft opinion showed the US Supreme Court's intent to overturn Roe v. Wade. Both Newsom and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon expressed their support for the amendment. The Supreme Court did overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, later in 2022.
On September 27, 2022, California Assembly Bill 1242 was passed. This assembly bill aimed to further strengthen abortion protections, and protect women from other state who have abortions in California by amending the penal code. These amendments would also prevent law enforcement from giving information regarding a legal abortion that takes place within the state of California. AB 1242 also sets bail at $0 for those that are arrested in connection to a lawful abortion that takes place within California.
On November 8, 2022, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 1, which amended the Constitution of California to explicitly protect the right to abortion; it is among the first three states do so, alongside Michigan and Vermont.
Amendment text
Post-Proposition 1 On September 27, 2023, Newsom signed several shield bills into law, including AB 352, AB 254 and AB 345. AB 352 amends the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) to require electronic health record developers to enable privacy protections for, and segregate gender affirming care, abortion, abortion-related services and contraception from the rest of, a patient’s medical record. AB 254 amends the CMIA to prohibit certain health care providers, pharmaceutical companies, California health care service plans and other entities from disclosing “medical information” in their possession regarding a patient, enrollee or subscriber without the individual’s prior authorization unless an exception applies, and as well as create, maintain, store or destroy medical information in a manner that preserves its confidentiality. AB 345 prohibits employees, contractors, and agents from cooperating, providing information, or expending resources in furtherance of an investigation of an individual for “legally protected health care activity”, including abortion, and prohibits any California Healing Arts Board from taking disciplinary action or denying an application based on the provision of the protected care under SB 345.
On September 26, 2025, Newsom signed AB 260, which allows health care providers the option to prescribe abortion care medication to patients anonymously, as well as AB 1525, which shields attorneys assisting other states with access to reproductive care from State Bar discipline. He also signed AB 45, which prohibits the collection, use, disclosure, sale, sharing, or retention of personal information of a natural person located at or with the precise geolocation of a family planning center. Finally, he signed AB 50, which repealed Medi-Cal policies requiring a prescription for reimbursement of enrollees for over-the-counter contraceptives.
Judicial history