SDA ARTICLES

After midnight on the last day of the legislative session, AB 17 --a bill that requires religious institutions to provide benefits to domestic partners [ie. homosexuals- Ed.] as a condition of participating in government contracts-- was hustled through the California Legislature.

As finally amended, AB17 may not apply to Adventist child-care centers and colleges. However, the State may interpret the bill to require religious hospitals to comply or lose MediCal funding. In order to avoid the bills fiscal impact during the State's budget crisis, as amended, it is slated to take affect on 2007. This gives the religioius community some breathing space to evauate how best to respond. -Pacific Union Recorder, October 2003