(a) The California Reproductive Justice and Freedom Fund (RJ Fund) is hereby established. The goal of the RJ Fund is to dismantle historic and standing systemic reproductive and sexual health inequities through medically accurate, culturally congruent education and outreach, as well as to create innovative strategies that meaningfully address and function to eliminate root causes of reproductive oppression.

(b) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the State Department of Public Health shall award grants from the RJ Fund to eligible community-based organizations over a three-year period.

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(1) On or before July 1, 2023, the department shall post the grant application on its internet website and solicit applications.

(2) On or before December 31, 2023, the department shall award grants to selected entities based on the eligibility criteria.

(c) A grant recipient shall use any grant funds awarded pursuant to this section to implement a program or fund an existing program that provides and promotes medically accurate, comprehensive reproductive and sexual health education.

(d) A program funded pursuant to this section shall do all of the following:

(1) Promote reproductive justice.

(2) Provide medically accurate, culturally congruent reproductive and sexual health education that is inclusive of information on abortion rights, care, and services. The education or outreach provided by a program shall include information on how to obtain an abortion or provide abortion referrals, especially upon request.

(3) Be targeted at communities that have experienced or continue to experience high reproductive or sexual health inequities or disparities. This includes communities that have experienced reproductive or sexual health inequities or disparities because of historic and systemic oppression, including based on their race and ethnicity, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender expression, foster youth status, or disability.

(e) A grant recipient may use a portion of grant funds to pay for costs associated with carrying out grant activities. An assessment of associated costs shall contemplate the community-based organization, the community served, and the nature of services it provides, and may include all of the following:

(1) Building staff capacity.

(2) Development and dissemination of materials.

(3) Travel costs.

(f) The department shall not spend more than 5 percent of the funds appropriated for the purposes of this section on administrative costs.

(g) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Community-based organization” means a public or private not-for-profit organization that provides education, resources, or services and is representative of a disparately impacted community or significant segments of a community or has demonstrated status as a trusted part of the community that it serves.

(2) “Culturally congruent education” means education that takes account of the cultural beliefs, values, norms, patterns, way of life, or practices of the target audience to provide appropriate and meaningful education. Culturally congruent education and outreach fits a person‘s or community’s lifestyle, values, and systems of meaning. It requires acknowledgment, respect, and adaptation of information to the cultural needs of the communities served. Additionally, it contemplates sociocultural and situational factors into education.

(3) “Medically accurate” means factual information, verified or supported by research conducted in compliance with scientific methods, published in peer-reviewed journals, if appropriate, and recognized as accurate and objective by the relevant professional organizations.

(4) “Racial equity” means the condition achieved when race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes and when conditions for all groups are improved. Racial equity includes transforming the behaviors, institutions, and systems that harm disparately impacted communities, including by increasing access to power, redistributing and providing additional resources, and eliminating barriers to opportunity, in order to empower Black, Indigenous, and communities of color to thrive and realize their full potential.

(5) “Reproductive health” means the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. “Reproductive health” implies that a person is able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so.

(6) “Reproductive justice” means the human right to control our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction, which can only be achieved when all people, particularly women and girls, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, their families, and their communities in all areas of their lives. At the core of “reproductive justice” is the belief that all people have the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent the children they have with dignity and respect, in safe and sustainable communities.

(7) “Sexual health” means the state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality, and not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction, or infirmity. “Sexual health” requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination, and violence.

(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 564, Sec. 2. (AB 2586) Effective January 1, 2023.)