Cal Pen Code § 270 (2004)
§ 270. Failure to provide for child
If a parent of a minor child willfully omits, without lawful
excuse, to furnish necessary clothing, food, shelter or medical attendance, or
other remedial care for his or her child, he or she is guilty of a misdemeanor
punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($ 2,000), or by
imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine
and imprisonment. If a court of competent jurisdiction has made a final
adjudication in either a civil or a criminal action that a person is the parent
of a minor child and the person has notice of such adjudication and he or she
then willfully omits, without lawful excuse, to furnish necessary clothing,
food, shelter, medical attendance or other remedial care for his or her child,
this conduct is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one
year or in a state prison for a determinate term of one year and one day, or by
a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($ 2,000), or by both such fine and
imprisonment. This statute shall not be construed so as to relieve such parent
from the criminal liability defined herein for such omission merely because the
other parent of such child is legally entitled to the custody of such child nor
because the other parent of such child or any other person or organization
voluntarily or involuntarily furnishes such necessary food, clothing, shelter
or medical attendance or other remedial care for such child or undertakes to do
so.
Proof of abandonment or desertion of a child by such parent,
or the omission by such parent to furnish necessary food, clothing, shelter or
medical attendance or other remedial care for his or her child is prima facie
evidence that such abandonment or desertion or omission to furnish necessary
food, clothing, shelter or medical attendance or other remedial care is willful
and without lawful excuse.
The court, in determining the ability of the parent to
support his or her child, shall consider all income, including social insurance
benefits and gifts.
The provisions of this section are applicable whether the
parents of such child are or were ever married or divorced, and regardless of
any decree made in any divorce action relative to alimony or to the support of
the child. A child conceived but not yet born is to be deemed an existing
person insofar as this section is concerned.
The husband of a woman who bears a child as a result of
artificial insemination shall be considered the father of that child for the
purpose of this section, if he consented in writing to the artificial
insemination.
If a parent provides a minor with treatment by spiritual
means through prayer alone in accordance with the tenets and practices of a
recognized church or religious denomination, by a duly accredited practitioner
thereof, such treatment shall constitute "other remedial care", as
used in this section.