Senator Dave Min’s Reproductive Coercion Bill Receives Unanimous Support in State Senate

Senator Dave Min’s Reproductive Coercion Bill Receives Unanimous Support in State Senate

SB 374 would make California the first state to recognize reproductive coercion as a form of domestic violence

SACRAMENTO, CA — Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) announced his Senate Bill (SB) 374 advanced out of its house of origin today, with unanimous support. The bill adds reproductive coercion, defined as excessively pressuring the other party to become pregnant, deliberately interfering with access to reproductive health information or using coercive tactics to control pregnancy outcomes, to the definition of domestic violence.

“I thank my colleagues for protecting victims of reproductive coercion by passing SB 374 today,” Min said. “Coercive control over women’s reproductive autonomy is unfortunately a far too common form of domestic violence, one that is typically ignored. SB 374 will provide survivors of domestic violence with the legal tools they need to protect themselves and to escape their abusive relationships. If signed into law, this legislation will save women’s lives.”

Min’s wife, Jane Stoever, a Clinical Professor of Law at the UC Irvine School of Law, along with help from Amy Abshier, Amelia Haselkorn, Emily Phillips and Courtney West, students in the Domestic Violence Clinic she teaches, provided the research and advocacy that inspired the bill.  Stoever, who is also the Founder and Director of the university’s interdisciplinary UCI’s Initiative to End Family Violence, testified last month at the Judiciary Committee hearing on this bill.

The final vote count was 37-0.