In this landmark 1981 case, the ACLU fought and won a lawsuit challenging the consitutionality of provisions in the California Constitution in the 1978, 1979, and 1980 budget acts that limit Medi-Cal funding for abortions. The suite of lawsuits began before the 1978 budget provision could take effect. CDRR sued Beverlee A. Myers, Director of the State Department of Health Services, to prohibit her from enforcing the restrictions. They resulted primarily in disciminatory treatment of poor women who chose to have abortions, and whose medical expenses were not covered. The medical costs of childbirth were covered. The ACLU argued that this policy is a violation of each woman's right to privacy, as guaranteed by the California Constitution.

The court writes: "...this case does not turn on the morality or immorality of abortion." Instead, they clarify: "...the constitutional question before us does not involve a weighing of the value of abortion as against childbirth, but instead concerns the protection of either procreative choice from discriminatory governmental treatment." They also question the right of the state, within the boundaries of a program designed to provide medical services to the poor, to dictate or proscribe medical choices "the state does not favor and does not wish to support." They also note, quite simply, "the cost of an abortion is much less than the cost of maternity care and delivery." The court also admits that the case does seem to turn on an issue that is still not at rest - "protecting the potential life of a fetus," in their language.

In their decision, the court writes: "By virtue of the explicit protection afforded an individual's inalienable right of privacy by article I, section 1 of the California Constitution…the decision whether to bear a child or to have an abortion is so private and so intimate that each woman in this state — rich or poor — is guaranteed the constitutional right to make that decision as an individual, uncoerced by governmental intrusion."