BURLINGAME – The California Teachers Association Board of Directors voted to support Proposition 1, The Reproductive Freedom Act, that seeks to amend the California Constitution to protect women’s rights to basic healthcare and reproductive freedoms.

“Standing in unity with the educators, students and families we serve, the CTA Board made the policy-based decision to support Prop. 1. Our mothers, daughters, partners, sisters and friends should have the freedom and right to determine their healthcare and to make deeply personal decisions on their own, a fundamental human right,” said CTA President E. Toby Boyd. “Our freedom to make personal and private decisions, not just about our health but also about our families and our lives, is at risk with the recent Supreme Court decision.”

The California Legislature put Proposition 1 on the ballot this November following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“The recent Supreme Court decision not only strips people of those constitutional rights, but also undermines basic American values like freedom and fairness for all, handing that power to state lawmakers,” said Boyd. “The ruling serves an extreme political agenda that few Americans support at the expense of many. The decision fails to protect our freedoms and instead politicizes the nation’s highest court, which undermines the very intent of its establishment.”

The CTA Board of Directors took action after the California Legislature voted in June to put the constitutional amendment on the November ballot. The CTA State Council of Education, which meets quarterly to conduct association business, had met in May. State Council is CTA’s top governing body and is comprised of more than 700 educators from across the state. State Council has opposed three previous initiatives that sought to restrict reproductive healthcare. The recommendation to support Proposition 1 will be sent to State Council for ratification in October.

CTA and the National Education Association support the rights of educators to choose whether to have children and how to have a family. Delegates at the NEA Representative Assembly voted overwhelmingly to affirm these rights at the national convention in July.

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The 310,000-member California Teachers Association is affiliated with the 3 million-member National Education Association.