California

Despite opposition from parents, the California Legislature passed AB 495, the euphemistically titled Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025. The bill allows anyone to claim to be a child’s caregiver – without parental consent or knowledge.

Parental rights activists called the bill the “License to Kidnap Act” and “The California Trafficking Bill,” as it allows non-parents to fill out a “Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit,” claim “affinity within the fifth degree of kinship,” and make medical and educational decisions on behalf of a child.

As California Family Council (CFC) explains, the bill allows anyone who fills out the form to be designated as a child’s caregiver, without any safeguards such as a background check, finger printing, notarization or parent signature.

It’s just one of many horrific bills approved by the legislature and passed on to Governor Gavin Newsom for signing. These include a measure that requires school identification cards to include the suicide hotline number of a radical LGBT activist group, a bill that makes physician-assisted suicide a permanent part of California law and legislation assuring access to dangerous abortion drugs. 

Here’s a roundup of recently passed measures from the California State Legislature that threaten life, children, parents and religious freedom.

AB 495 – Family Preparedness Act  

Supporters say the measure was needed to protect children when their parents were detained or deported, since it allows another adult to communicate with educators and medical practitioners on behalf of a child.

But CFC explained the bill allows any adult to sign the Caregivers Authorization Affidavit without any parental involvement. The group said:

Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) made a similar point on the Senate floor when she said the affidavit process “has exposed the massive safety risk our current caregiver authorization affidavit process poses.”

She pointed out that someone could make important decisions for a child by “simply filling out an eight-question form that is not required to be notarized, checking a box to indicate that they are a relative, and presenting a form of ID that is never verified for authenticity.”

Pastor Jack Hibbs, of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, bluntly stated his opposition to the bill, “This is actually a dream come true for kidnappers, traffickers, and pedophiles. It is so bad, so dangerous.”

AB 727 – Pupil and Student Safety

The bill requires “public schools that serve pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and public institutions of higher education that issue pupil identification cards” to print the number of The Trevor Project’s LGBTQ+ suicide hotline on those ID cards.

This practice actually endangers students, as CFC explained:

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.

CFC Vice President Greg Burt described the threat to children and parents’ rights, “This is not neutral mental health support. It is ideological indoctrination wrapped in rainbow packaging and pushed on emotionally vulnerable kids, without parental consent or accountability.”

The requirement violates religious freedom and promotes a sexual agenda that is in direct opposition to many families’ deeply held values and beliefs.

SB-403 – End of Life Option Act

California’s original physician-assisted suicide law, the End of Life Option Act, was set to end in 2031, but this bill extended the law permanently. CFC opposed the measure, saying:

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 organization added that state-sponsored and assisted suicide should not be labeled compassionate, adding, “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.”

AB 54 – Access to Safe Abortion Care Act

Of course, abortion is never “safe” for the child being aborted. And abortion is not “care” for the mother or her preborn child, as this bill euphemistically proclaims. But the California legislature is intent on keeping abortion-inducing drugs easily available for women.

According to CFC, “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 pro-life organization explains the danger and harms of abortion drugs, stating:

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. 

California Family Council is calling on all Californians who care about life, children, parental rights and religious freedom to contact Governor Newsom and urge him to veto these brutal, destructive measures. 

Image from Shutterstock.