Hot Bills, High Stakes: July’s Legislative Rundown for California

It’s been a busy summer in Sacramento and for SCOTUS, and July is shaping up to be a pivotal month for several key bills impacting healthcare, mental health services, and the LGBTQ+ community. in California. Whether you're tracking what’s moving, what’s stalled, or what’s quietly gaining traction, we’ve got you covered with our new monthly update. Here’s a roundup of legislation to support or oppose, along with updates on what’s already passed, and what it means for you and your family.

This month we’re covering that the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled last month that states can bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood (PP), the nation’s largest abortion provider. 

Medicaid is a federal and state funded health insurance. It provides day to day health 

and long-term care coverage to 83 million low-income children and adults in the United 

States. Medicaid is administered to states via broad federal rules and jointly funded by 

states and the federal government through a federal matching program. Each state has 

some flexibility in determining what services and which individuals their insurance will 

cover, and how to deliver care and how much to reimburse providers, there is variation 

across states in program spending and the share of residents covered by the program. 

Abortion care is about a mere 4% of total services provided by PP, with little more than 

half of their clinics providing these services. This means SCOTUS’s ruling last month 

primarily attacks PP, as a provider of reproductive health care far beyond abortion care. 

The federal government and many states had already blocked using Medicaid funds to 

cover abortion prior to the SCOTUS ruling. However, the state and federal health 

insurance programs for lower-income people covered other services provided by PP 

that included birth control, cancer screenings and testing and treatment for sexually 

transmitted infections. 

PP provided healthcare services to more than 2.2 million Americans in 2022. Those 

who will be most impacted by SCOTUS’s ruling will be women, rural Americans, and 

other communities that are underserved medically. PP is a lifeline for these 

communities. It’s hard to not view the SCOTUS ruling as an attack at women and 

marginalized communities, because it is. 

California Assembly Bills to Watch: 

●​AB665: Existing law, authorizes a minor who is 12 years of age or older to 

consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to 

residential shelter services, if the minor is mature enough to participate 

intelligently in the outpatient services or residential shelter services, and either 

the minor would present a danger of serious physical or mental harm to 

themselves or to others or if the minor is the alleged victim of incest or child 

abuse. For other purposes, current law authorizes a minor who is 12 years of age 

or older to consent to mental health treatment or counseling services if the minor 

is mature enough to participate intelligently in outpatient services or counseling 

Services.

 If enacted in its current form, the bill provides minors 12 years of age and older 

the right to seek mental healthcare without requiring their parent’s consent. 

●​AB223: This bill would require any petition for a change of gender and sex 

identifier or a petition for change of gender, sex identifier, and name filed by a 

person under 18 years of age, and any papers associated with the proceeding, to 

be kept confidential by the court. The bill would require the court to limit access 

to these records to specified individuals, including, among others, the minor, the 

minors’ parents, and their attorneys. 

If enacted in its current form, the bill provides confidentiality to existing laws that 

permit the above noted changes but does not guarantee confidentiality in court 

records.

●​AB495: This bill, the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025, would expand the 

type of person who is authorized to execute a caregivers authorization affidavit to 

include a nonrelative extended family member, as defined, and grant them the 

same rights to authorize school-related medical care, as defined, for the minor 

that are given to guardians, as specified. By expanding who is authorized to sign 

a caregivers authorization affidavit for these purposes under penalty of perjury, 

this bill would expand the crime of perjury, thereby imposing a state-mandated 

local program. 

If enacted in its current form, the bill will provide protection for children who may 

be being cared for by undocumented loved ones or mixed families. It also 

provides coverage for children with complicated custody, such as no formal 

adoption or custody in place.

●​AB727: Existing law, commencing July 1, 2025, requires a public or private 

school that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, and that issues pupil 

identification cards to have printed on the identification cards the number for the 

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Existing law requires a public or private institution 

of higher education that issues student identification cards to have printed on 

either side of the student identification cards the telephone number for the 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This bill, commencing July 1, 2026, would 

require 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 

additionally have printed on the identification cards the telephone number and 

text line for a specified LGBTQ+ suicide hotline, as provided. 

If enacted in it’s current form, the bill will provide additional support for public 

school students who identify as LGBTQ+ and are experiencing a mental health 

crisis. 

As always, staying informed is the first step, but action is just as important. If any of these bills spark concern or support, consider calling your representatives, or sharing this update with your community. California's future is being shaped right now, let’s make sure our voices are part of it.