California Doesn’t Need a New Abortion Measure

Prop 1 Might Have Good Intentions, But It Puts Fundamental Rights at Risk

California’s leaders shouldn’t put fundamental rights up for a vote. But the legislature and governor have nonetheless chosen to add Proposition 1 to this November’s ballot.

At first glance, Prop 1 doesn’t look like anything to worry about—if you, like most Californians (including your columnist), support abortion rights. It comes at a time when even conservative Kansas is voting pro-choice. And its 78-word text is seemingly simple. Prop 1 adds explicit protections for reproductive rights to the California Constitution—guaranteeing the “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion” and the “fundamental …