CBS News, August 4, 2022
Rachel Bluth
Californians will decide in November whether to lock the right to abortion into the state constitution.
If they vote “yes” on Proposition 1, they will also lock in a right that has gotten less attention: the right to birth control.
Should the measure succeed, California would become one of the first states — if not the first — to create explicit constitutional rights to both abortion and contraception.
But California’s reputation as a haven for contraceptive availability may not be fully warranted, said Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. In her 2020 study of contraceptive access in Los Angeles County, which has some of the highest rates of teen and unintended pregnancy in the country, Qato found that only 10% of pharmacies surveyed offered pharmacist-prescribed birth control. Pharmacies in low-income and minority communities were the least likely to offer the service, Qato said, worsening disparities instead of solving them.
Qato supports the constitutional amendment but said California should focus on improving and enforcing the laws it already has.
“We don’t need more laws when we don’t address the root cause of a lack of effectiveness of these laws in these communities,” Qato said. “Lack of enforcement and accountability disproportionately impacts communities of color.”