The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) Persons working in the reproductive health care field, specifically the provision of terminating a pregnancy, are often subject to harassment, threats, and acts of violence by persons or groups.

(1) In 2000, 30 percent of respondents to a Senate Office of Research survey of 172 California reproductive health care providers reported they or their families had been targets of acts of violence by groups that oppose reproductive rights at locations away from their clinics or offices.

(2) Persons and groups that oppose reproductive rights attempt to stop the provision of legal reproductive health care services by threatening reproductive health care service providers, clinics, employees, volunteers, and patients. The names, photographs, spouses’ names, and home addresses of these providers, employees, volunteers, and patients have been posted on Internet Web sites. From one website list that includes personal information of reproductive health care service providers, seven persons have been murdered and 14 have been injured. As of August 5, 2002, there are 78 Californians listed on this site. The threat of violence toward reproductive health care service providers and those who assist them has clearly extended beyond the clinic and into the home.

(3) Nationally, between 1992 and 1996, the number of reproductive health care service providers declined by 14 percent. Nearly one out of every four women must travel more than 50 miles to obtain reproductive health care services dealing with the termination of a pregnancy. There exists a fear on the part of physicians to enter the reproductive health care field and to provide reproductive health care services.

(4) Reproductive health care services are legal medical procedures. In order to prevent potential acts of violence from being committed against providers, employees, and volunteers who assist in the provision of reproductive health care services and the patients seeking those services, it is necessary for the Legislature to ensure that the home address information of these individuals is kept confidential.

(b) Other individuals are also subject to harassment, threats, and acts of violence from the public because of their work with the public, which have become more frequent and serious since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They include, but are not limited to, public health officers and public health workers, election workers, school board members, and code enforcement officers.

(1) For example, persons working in the elections field are often subject to harassment, threats, and acts of violence by persons or groups. Violent threats and harassment of election workers reached alarming levels in the 2020 general election and continued into 2021. A survey of election officials in 2021 found that one in three election officials feel unsafe because of their job, and nearly one in five listed threats to their lives as a job-related concern.

(2) The names, photographs, and home addresses of these public servants have been posted on internet websites. While performing election-related duties, election officials were subjected to explicit death threats, anger-laden language and demoralizing behavior, statements that threatened their own and their family’s safety and well-being, and statements that interfered with their ability to do their job. The threat of violence toward election workers has extended beyond the polling place and into the home.

(3) Experts predict a massive departure from the profession of election administration if protective measures are not implemented. In California, 15 percent of election officials have retired since the 2020 election. Elections play a vital role in a free and fair society and are a cornerstone of American democracy, but those charged with administrating elections are increasingly subjected to violent threats, harassment, and intimidation. In order to prevent acts of violence from being committed against employees who assist in the administration of elections, it is necessary for the Legislature to ensure that the home addresses of these individuals are kept confidential.

(4) While many of these individuals wish to protect the confidentiality of their home addresses by means of address confidentiality programs operated by the Secretary of State, they may not be eligible to do so under current law. It is the intent of the Legislature in this chapter to offer address protection services to persons whose work for a public entity exposes them to violent threats, harassment, and intimidation from the public that are equivalent to what is experienced by those now eligible for the address confidentiality program pursuant to this chapter.

(c) The purpose of this chapter is to enable state and local agencies to respond to requests for public records without disclosing the residential location of a reproductive health care services provider, employee, volunteer, or patient, or other individual who faces threats of violence or violence from the public because of their work for a public entity, to enable interagency cooperation with the Secretary of State in providing address confidentiality for program participants, and to enable state and local agencies to accept a program participant’s use of an address designated by the Secretary of State as a substitute mailing address.

(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 554, Sec. 6. (SB 1131) Effective September 26, 2022.)