California governor Newsom vetoes bill to make free condoms available for high school students, citing cost

return2ozma@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 628 points –
California governor vetoes bill to make free condoms available for high school students, citing cost
apnews.com
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What is up with Newsome vetoing all this shit suddenly?

Presumably getting ready to launch his own presidential bid, so he needs to court the center by appearing more moderate.

Or the opposing side trying to make him look bad. California still sets the standards for a lot of rules that we'd be better off with the rest of the country copying.

Yeah honestly it seems like a targeted media blitz more than anything. If you read the actual article, most of his vetos are done for very good reasons - but they're all being posted with reductive headlines

Teens having Kids cost more than condoms

Frankly, when I was in high school - cost was never the issue in whether a couple used condoms, and even in my relatively conservative area, there were local programs that would give out free condoms if you cared enough to look

Better sex education would go a much longer way imo - because even in California our sex Ed (this was like a decade ago, so maybe it's changed) was full of "abstinence only" garbage - thankfully the teachers were usually smart enough to go off book and give realistic advice/answers

if you cared enough to look

Big if. To me it seems worthwhile to have them easily accessible so that teens would be carrying them around. Limits the amount of pre-planning needed

My wife grew up.in California and they didn't even teach sex ed.in high school. We need tobtake back out schools from these Christian crazies who ruined sex.ed and want to take away our books

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Buying them isn't an issue. Getting kids to actually use them is what matters.

Some stores won't sell to people under 18, even when there's no law requiring them to (I don't k.ow of a place that does) and that requires money, something in short supply if you're a teen

Funny story. I remember years ago having a girlfriend when I was 25, and we are staying with my parents, who live in a small town for a few days. We went to buy some condoms one day, and we found that none of the mini marts nearby carried any sort of contraceptives at all.

I remember asking the clerk, who was younger than me, and he acted incredulous that anybody would need a condom. In a city of 25,000 people.

Luckily, Safeway came to the rescue. Lol

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What was the cost associated with banning caste discrimination and decriminalizing mushrooms?

The caste one he argued that there are already laws in place that cover it, and that what we need instead is to increase education about these existing laws and how they can be used to prevent caste discrimination. There is no point in creating another law that does the exact same thing as existing anti discrimination laws.

For decriminalizing mushrooms he argued that the bill doesn't actually include any provisions for how the medical usage can be implemented or how the required infrastructure can be put in place. When CA was medical only for weed it was frankly a shit show for a long while because it was highly unclear what was actually allowed and what wasn't, he didn't want a repeat.

Whether you agree with either of those arguments is an entirely different question, but the titles of been seeing make it seem like he's just shooting them down for fun - hence my suspicion that this is astroturfing.

One of two things is true - either over the last week he's inexplicably gotten a ton of really controversial bills crossing his desk that are all more newsworthy than anything else over the last few years, and he vetoed every single one. Or half-assed bills like these pass this desk all the time and get vetoed pending better solutions, and they're only now getting overblown coverage as part of a smear campaign. Frankly the latter seems more likely

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This never actually works. The Democratic party is a center eight party that only looks left.because the oteht major party are fucking crazy terrorists

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The CA legislature passed a buttload of bills right before adjourning, so he's working his way through them now. Plus, CA has a budget deficit, so stuff that costs money has to be more carefully considered - free condoms are a worthwhile thing, but then the question becomes what do you cut instead? It's not always an easy question.

How much do they actually expect these to cost? How about they cancel fireworks at the next sports event. That'd probably cover it

California state government doesn't pay for fireworks.

How much would prohibiting caste discrimination or decriminalizing psilocybin increase the deficit?

That's the wrong question.

"How can this law be exploited." Or "does it make sense to put another law on the books if this is already addressed with existing laws"

If you take the specified reason, then it's explicitly cited as reason #2. But the backlash is manufactured by progressives and exploited by conservatives to incubate in-fighting. Don't fall for it.

"You are forbidden from asking questions we don't like. Those are wrong questions. Being anything shy of worshipful every time your party fails you is working with conservatives because we say so. Now excuse us while we capitulate to conservatives and order you to shut up and be happy about it again."

You're missing the fire for the smoke, and it's sad how easily progressives fall for it every time

Ensign_Crab, we have a fundraising deadline at midnight tonight, and we’re short $2178! Will you pledge $31 to help bring us over the line?

Well, he said he vetoed the caste discrimination one because it's already covered by existing laws, so they don't need a new one. No clue about the psilocybin. I must have missed that one among the 87 articles about each individual veto that have been posted in the last couple of days.

Well, he said he vetoed the caste discrimination one because it’s already covered by existing laws, so they don’t need a new one

"We don't need laws prohibiting discrimination against [minority]! They're just whining about nothing because our existing laws cover them!"

I must have missed that one among the 87 articles about each individual veto that have been posted in the last couple of days.

A lot of unconvincing excuses to keep straight, huh?

I mean, yeah, if it's already prohibited under an existing law, you generally don't need another one. That's how laws work, and people do a fair amount of work to remove outdated and duplicate laws because it makes everyone's job harder when you have to weed through that.

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If you think fronting the cost of condoms for teenagers is expensive, wait till you see how much it costs the state to provide services for a single teen mother

Or how about we don't provide services for people who make obvious mistakes. I'd rather keep my tax money than it go to them

It costs less in taxes to take a child out of poverty than to put them in prison as an adult.

Additionally, taking children out of poverty improves the tax contributions they and their own children will make more than it costs.

In other words, your taxes aren't going to just them but is an investment in us all.

And you're making the same argument people without kids sometimes make about education, why should I pay for public schools, I don't have kids, I don't benefit. But you do, everytime a cashier counts change, everytime you don't get robbed because a kid had an opportunity to come out of poverty, everytime you have an intelligent conversation with a neighbor.

We live in a society. If you don't want to be part of our society, feel free to move someplace without taxes.

The person wants to punish others. It’s not actually about the cost.

Today I learned that not giving strangers MY money is, quite literally, punishing them

TIL that voting for people who also want to punish others is the best way to punish others.

Nice strawman u dont know what he votes now answer him

Have you considered that many of the public services you rely on every day (roads, safety in food and drugs, public works, fire departments and police, etc) are partly funded with MY money, given to you, a stranger?

I’M happy to contribute to YOUR health, safety, stability, and enjoyment, because I want all of us to have a better future, even if you don’t.

It's not your money, it's your tax contribution which is the government's money and decision how to spend.

I'm a pacifist based on religious beliefs and can't be drafted. My tax contribution still goes to wars. Because the money goes into a pool and spent where our officials decide it best serves everybody (ideally).

The idea that it's your money is as bullshit as the idea that we all benefit from letting children starve because a high school kid made a mistake and didn't wear a condom.

It's not your money. It's the tax man's. If you don't want to pay taxes, move someplace without them.

And this is why I left lolitarian after about a month. Once you start looking at the numbers of how much crime costs vs how little after school programs cost it is a no brainier. If someone gets convicted of a felony from the pure cold government accounting they are a net loss. There is almost zero chance that the government will make back what was spent on them.

It just is so much easier to be proactive vs reactive. We know the statistics, we know that a dollar spent on such and such program removes multiple times future costs.

Source on the costs? (I'm not doubting what you say is true, I would just like to know where you get your data).

Search Incarceration vs. Education.

It's easy to extrapolate just from the headlines but I'm sure if you dig into the articles you'll find the data you are asking for.

My source is lived experience and human services courses. So I don't have a study to point too.

But there are studies and data on this is abundant.

One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and all of that.

But there are studies and data on this is abundant.

And you couldn't find one?

It’s easy to extrapolate just from the headlines

Clickbait articles are everywhere. NEVER trust the headlines.

I'm still not doubting what you say is true -- I just want to know what studies prove it, simply because I do not possess the requisite knowledge to assume "truthiness" of said articles if I were to even find them. My area of expertise is very far from anything related to human services.

Here's a NAACP report. Prison is expensive because all of that security is expensive. Add onto that medical care, especially older inmates with long bids cost a lot. It's cheaper to invest in education. High school drop outs, black or white, are more likely to be incarcerated. Reducing high school drop out rates is something doable and it would save money.

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/naacp/misplaced_priorities.pdf

Also, investing in education improves GDP. People in higher income brackets also pay more taxes. The GDP increase for the US if we ensured every child access to education is 16% per year for the next 80 years.

Here's that study. That's the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OCED.

https://www.oecd.org/education/universal-basic-skills-9789264234833-en.htm

I can find something for you. Just was busy when I replied earlier and finding good studies to share that aren't behind a paywall takes time.

Let me burn one and do a few other things. Then I'll see if I can dig something up for you.

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Weird way to say "I'm a selfish piece of shit who thinks others should suffer because I think I am superior"

Also, entirely ignorant of the long term savings social programs provide. Poverty is expensive. The cost of a condom is nothing compared to the cost of a baby. The cost of caring for and educating a baby is nothing compared to the cost of an adult raised and living in poverty. The cost of providing for an adult raised and living in poverty is nothing compared to the cost of dealing with systemic problems related to homelessness.

You cannot avoid the costs, you can only kick them down the road a ways, where they will only grow.

$500 spent now saves $500,000 later.

Your numbers are way off but the point stands haha

They’re not if you consider the cost of funding a whole state’s worth of condoms vs the cost of dealing with unwanted children in the foster care system, then the legal system when some of those children grow up to be criminals after society has failed them.

It’s actually much higher than that.

It’s actually much higher than that.

Yes that's what I was getting at.

Sorry, I just switched Lemmy clients and i responded to the wrong comment. My reply was meant for the ‘condoms cost less than $500’ comment in this thread.

I agree with you.

(And then I just responded to myself instead of you. I think I need to clear my cache.)

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Are there numbers way off? I paid tens of thousands of dollars in taxes last year which is only possible because my parents had access to food stamps when I was a kid. Over a lifetime it could definitely work out to half a million.

It could definitely work out to half a million.

Pretty sure it's a lot more than that. Food stamps aren't the only expense.

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Even if we pandered to your every preference, I doubt it would satiate the greed of someone who'd rather see children punished than contribute fractions of a penny to prevent it.

So why make society worse if it won't even make you better?

They're not my children, why should I as a taxpayer have to pay for them?

They’re not my children, why should I as a taxpayer have to pay for them?

Because they are your fellow citizens.

  1. You have to pay for them either way. Only 1 way is multiple orders of magnitude less expensive.

  2. Because children shouldn't be disadvantaged or suffer because of the poor decisions of their parents.

  3. Because they're fucking people, bro. Have some compassion. Everyone makes mistakes.

You already know the answer to that but you asked the question anyway because it serves as self-entitled neoliberal/libertarian propaganda.

And of course if there was an actual city out there modelled after your libertarian paradise, there's not a chance you'd move there, let alone be happier there.

But boy would I love to see it.

Because no matter how much of your personality you devote to being a miser, your actual, actual wealth is a piss puddle next to an ocean.

You'd be a functional slave with every dollar you earned being immediately extracted from you as you're charged by the foot for the roads you use, living off post-FDA Starbucks that you don't know has baby-killing levels of formaldehyde in it (again) because the one media company left was paid to not report it.

But hey, at least you wouldn't be paying 1c a year for someone else's birth control.

You are paying for them. You live in a society and anyone languishing in that society makes your life that much worse off.

That "obvious mistake" is made every day by teens, some not even old enough to drive. I'm sure letting them fend for themselves is the best way to instill responsibility and not a recipe for child neglect or abandonment, but not like that's a recipe for a future criminal or junkie.

/s

Ok, but giving them money is literally rewarding them for these actions. Taking money out of my paycheck via taxes is not the answer

You should realize it's going to cost more of your tax money to throw those kids in prison once they have grown into terrible people because they were shunned by society. They aren't raising your taxes because of this.

They are taking a bit of tax money that you already have to pay and allocating it to helping people instead of buying another missile with it. It's not like your taxes would go down if they stopped helping pregnant teens.

Well if you are so very concerned about the taxpayer dollars you should be a supporter of this. A rubber is a whole lot cheaper than a single teenager mom with baby. It's thousands of dollars just to birth a baby with a healthy pregnancy.

We're literally going to pay less in taxes by helping them as I already explained to you in another post

Yet you cling to this hateful position. Get therapy or something damn.

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I’d rather keep my tax money than it go to them

Ahh, the classic 'we shouldn't reward bad behavior' line that completely ignores that treating tax money like Santa Candy (to be withheld from the bad little boys and girls) just costs everybody more tax dollars when it means foregoing spending on preventive measures that help avoid expensive problems.

It's not rewarding teen pregnancy, it's preventing it

Also,

I’d rather keep my tax money

You don't get to keep it either way.

Oh man there is so much to unpack there its hard to tell it you're just trolling or absolutely oblivious to what teenagers are like. There are libraries worth of papers and studies showing how that line of thinking is the first step down a steep and slippery slope that turns the USA into Afghanistan as far as society and quality of life.

The whole purpose of society is that we’re stronger together. If you disagree, that’s your prerogative, and if you want to go off the grid and back to a hunter-gatherer everyone-for-themselves lifestyle, you’re welcome to it.

Most of us don’t want that because it was objectively terrible compared to civilisation. We wouldn’t have modern technology or any of the things we take for granted without societal cooperation. You wouldn’t have a computer or internet to complain about the society you enjoy the benefits of.

That’s a pretty myopic take, honestly.

That would be 100% of all people who have ever lived, are alive today, and in the future.

Do you seriously believe there are people who haven’t made mistakes?!

As a childless vegan, fuck you pay me

First hand over your recipe for hummas from scratch that tastes better than the premade at the store.

Embarrassing but I literally could not figure out how to get my garbanzo plants to form beans this year. I recommend you pick up the roasted red pepper. What can I say, nobody's perfect.

How about I keep the money that comes from my paycheck, and you keep your money

How about cutting my taxes so I don't have to support the obvious mistakes of parents who have children and greedy assholes who continue to eat meat

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We had condoms in our school washrooms in the late 90s in Canada. Pads in the ladies room as well. At a broke ass public school that had out of date text books.

America really is a weird fucked up religiously warped place.

Yes and these vetos have nothing to do with cost and everything to do with Newsom positioning to be president.

He doesn't want to generate talking points for the right wingnut propaganda machine.

Vetos on progressive therapeutics, caste discrimination, etc.

Then there's kissing up to the big donor utilities to appoint a CPUC to hobble solar.

It really sucks because he could do good but nope.

The amount of bills he veto in last weeks makes me ask is this mother fucker a Republican or Democrat? He sure is veto bills he should be signing. If I was a Californian I be looking for his replacement and primary his sorry ass.

The amount of bills he veto in last weeks makes me ask is this mother fucker a Republican or Democrat?

Forgot the third option, preparing the run for President.

You know what's so much more expensive? Teenagers having babies. That shit is expensive for everyone. Having a child's life ruined and forced to raise a child into another ill prepared adult. Costs society lots of money.

I mean yeah but Cali is an abortion rights state so those factors are less present in the decision than they would be elsewhere

Abortions don’t just fall out of the sky. First trimester abortions are in the 300-900 range, and second trimester round about 1k-2k. Just comparing the raw cost of the procedure and omitting opportunity costs from recovery time and additional cost from complications, rubbers are real cheap.

Not to mention emotional cost.

Republican assholes always frame abortions as this whimsical thing women do, between errands.

It's very emotionally draining, often difficult decision even if you are sure you don't want / can't afford a kid.

The anti-choice movement has twisted this whole discussion so badly we're not even looking at the people most affected by all of this.

Yes but I was speaking relative to states where you can't get that. This would be a much more egregious decision in a state like Texas where it seems to be the prevailing legal theory that a woman is expected to die rather than have access to even a top expense abortion.

Not to mention how early term abortion pills will likely reduce such financial and opportunity costs.

Not getting pregnant is the best scenario for those that aren't ready for children. Despite easy access to abortion services some may feel guilt about ending a pregnancy early and have the child because it's the "right thing to do" even though it may lead to a terrible quality of life for mother and child.

Yes but my point was that in California, that choice, as hard as it is, is still available to them. A decision such as this would be much more egregious in Texas where even that hard decision is not available to them.

I think the point here is to prevent abortions. Nobody wants to have an abortion.

Yeah, I know that, my point is that it's in California instead of a state like Texas where someone doesn't even get that.

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Just FYI: most family planning centers, like Planned Parenthood, hospitals and birthing clinics already give out free condoms to anyone who asks. That's where I was getting mine when I was a teenager.

They give you bags stuffed to the brim!!!! It looks like the picture lol. Nobody there wants unwanted pregnancies.

When I was in high school, the local planned parenthood gave them to the schools to be available, but you had to ask the nurse or the health teacher.

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As much as I'm certain this is not the case I still can't help but be self amused with the mental image of an exasperated Gavin Newsom coming out of an extensive review of data on just how much Californian highschool students do be going at it, and immediately declaring "nope, can't afford to rubber all that."

"We want progressives!"

"You have progressives at home."

The progressive at home:

Newsom is starting to come around to running things a bit more like his predecessor. Brown was liberal, but Brown was famous for saying no to spending in order to preserve rainy day funds. And CA voters have always loved a governor who was socially liberal but fiscally conservative.

Newsom is trying to tighten the belt again. A pandemic, more fires, more floods, and more drought has meant that CA has been, and will need to, spend a lot on some pretty major things.

What is socially liberal about preserving caste discrimination? How does keeping psilocybin illegal or capping the price of insulin deplete the rainy day fund?

How is standing in the way of contraception socially liberal?

He vetoed a bill that provides free condoms with cost as a reason. Hardly standing in the way, just not giving a helping hand.

Helping people is leftist, not liberal.

Helping people is leftist, not liberal.

Well, at least I won't be under the mistaken impression that he's progressive anymore.

Caste discrimination is already illegal.

What harm will explicitly codifying it do, then?

"What harm will it do" is a shit argument. Tell me what good it will do.

It will explicitly protect people from caste discrimination instead of the weak and easily misinterpreted protections they currently have.

But a Democrat in office did it, so it must be right in all cases and any flimsy justification must be instantly accepted without question.

Judging from a number of posts here, does that guy have "Veto Week" or what?

I think he receives the bills to sign/veto in batches.

They also time things to overlap outrage and pushback. What was the last thing we were mad about? Right, the veto on the bill aimed at caste discrimination. Well now we're madder about the condoms, and we don't have the bandwidth to complain about two things at once.

Probably uses his ass like a stamp whenever he vetoes anything as well

I mean I do agree with the fact that the bill doesn't provide funding for the condoms just that the schools need to provide it. That sounds pretty dumb to me.

I mean but is there explicit funding for providing toilet paper?

I do think schools are under funded but that's a lousy reason imo

I don't have a strong opinion either way, but it does kind of make sense that loading an unfunded mandate on already under-funded public schools isn't the best way to come at this problem.

You mean? Or you say? What's the difference?

It's an American English thing. Sometimes to make a statement sound less intense, people start by saying "I mean." It's probably regional, but I'm not sure where people do and don't say it.

It's rather idiocy.

You came in here and misunderstood something and now you are calling everybody else idiots? Nobody else had a problem understanding what the comment meant except you.

As if you didn't come here and didn't misundertand something.

Or have you always been here, for eternity?

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I mean, you're not actually commenting on the substance of the statement that was made, you're cherry picking a single word and calling it out like you've somehow refuted the whole argument. That sounds pretty dumb to me.

You mean? Or you say? And what's the difference? Can you mean something without saying? Or can you say something without meaning?

I don't recall voting you boss of english.

You've forgotten? Man.... you have short memory.

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"mean" refers to "meaning", as in the definition, or understanding.

It is similar in use to ie, (id est, or that is). An explanation.

"Say" makes no sense in this context. Say is stating something, but he isn't stating, he is explaining.

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To be fair…. If there were free condoms at my school, they would just be used for water balloons and pranks

How many of those kids will end up in foster care? How many will put their parents onto welfare rolel? How many will we need to send to college?

It's hard to tell kids that condoms are cheaper than kids when the government won't do the same.

Didn't Colorado do this and teen pregnancy rates nosedived?

Edit: I couldn't find any news of Colorado doing this. Apologize for the misinformation.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Gavin Newsom rejected a bill on Sunday that would have made free condoms available all public high school students, arguing it was too expensive for a state with a budget deficit of more than $30 billion.

The bill is one of hundreds passed by California’s Democratic-dominated state Legislature before lawmakers adjourned last month.

Newsom has been signing and vetoing legislation since then, including rejecting bills on Saturday to ban caste-based discrimination, limit the price of insulin and decriminalize possession and use of some hallucinogens.

State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from Los Angeles and the author of the bill, had argued the bill would have helped “youth who decide to become sexually active to protect themselves and their partners from (sexually transmitted infections), while also removing barriers that potentially shame them and lead to unsafe sex.”

Newsom said programs increasing access to condoms are “important to supporting improved adolescent sexual health.” But he said this bill was one of several measures lawmakers passed this year that, when added together, would add $19 billion in costs to the state budget.

“With our state facing continuing economic risk and revenue uncertainty, it is important to remain disciplined when considering bills with significant fiscal implications, such as this measure,” Newsom said.


The original article contains 433 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 52%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Fuck you, buddy. This isn't the get-out-of-jail-free card that you think it is. Let's have more teen mothers with unwanted babies and see how that turns out. /s

Just par for the course at this point with Newsom. Still disappointing!

Since when is this the taxpayers problem? The government has no business holding peoples hands through life. They can buy their own

The issue isn't simply buying condoms. If that were the case, the bill would be to give away condoms anywhere they are sold (which would be vetoed as well). The issue is that, for high school kids, they often don't feel comfortable going out to buy condoms. It's still seen as something to be ashamed of. So when they get into a situation where they need one, it's not available which can lead to obvious complications.

Providing free condoms at high schools gives the kids a guilt-free, anonymous way to protect themselves when they eventually have sex, which is going to happen regardless of what adults say.