Pro-abortion bills are moving through California Legislature. Here’s what you need to know

A string of bills aimed at solidifying California’s protection of reproductive rights, from funding for clinics to protection of medical records, is moving through the Legislature.

“We are not going to go backward in California, and we have the tools and the ability to fight to protect a woman’s right to choose in our state,” Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis said Friday morning at a Legislative Womens Caucus press conference.

Lawmakers are also racing to put a measure on the November ballot asking voters to make the right to an abortion an amendment in the state constitution.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 would grant Californians the “fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives,” It’s moved quickly through the Legislature so far along with a slate of 13 bills endorsed by the California Future of Abortion Council.

Here’s what you need to know:

A fund for abortion access

• What it is: SB 1142, from Senator Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, would create the Abortion Practical Support Fund, with grants to Californians who face financial or other barriers to abortion. Would create a website with information about abortions in California, for those in and outside state.
  
  
• Where it’s at: Passed the Senate 29-9. Now in Assembly committee.

• Where they’re saying: “With SB 1142, California sends a clear message to the rest of the nation: We are fully committed to ensuring that California women and those who may seek refuge here have access to all reproductive services, including abortion,” Skinner wrote.

California Reproductive Health Service Corps

• What it is: AB 1918, from Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, would establish a trained group of healthcare professionals to provide care in underserved areas.
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 65-16. In Senate committee.
• What they’re saying: “The California Reproductive Health Service Corps will create incentives for increasing the workforce to provide comprehensive access to reproductive health services for our state’s diverse and vulnerable communities,” said Shannon Connolly, MD, FAAFP, Immediate Past President of California Academy of Family Physicians.

Expanded provider rights for nurse practitioners

• What it is: SB 1375, from Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would allow nurse practitioners to perform abortions and provide reproductive care without doctor supervision.
• Where it’s at: Passed Senate 30-9. In Assembly Appropriations Committee.
• What they’re saying: “Patients—especially pregnant people considering abortion—don’t have time to waste,” Atkins said. “That’s why it is so important that highly skilled, qualified nurse practitioners have the opportunity to practice independently, including the ability to provide reproductive care and first term abortions.”

Stronger privacy for medical records

• What it is: AB 2091, from Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, would strengthen privacy policies for records related to reproductive healthcare. Wouldn’t be available to law enforcement or third parties outside California seeking to enforce other states’ abortion bans.
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 54-16. In Senate Health Committee.
• What they’re saying: “AB 2091 will protect patient privacy to ensure that no one’s medical information is disclosed to a hostile anti-abortion state,” Planned Parenthood Advocates of California Legislative Director Molly Robson wrote. “As states across the country enact egregious abortion bans and further criminalize those who access this care, we are taking steps here in California to protect their access to abortion and their medical privacy.”

Funding providers of free abortion services

• What it is: AB 2134, from Assemblymember Akilah Weber, D-San Diego, would create a Reproductive Health Equity Program with grants to providers that serve low-income Californians free of charge.
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 53-19. In Senate Judiciary Committee.
• What they’re saying: “The need for my bill, AB 2134... which would establish the Reproductive Health Equity Program to provide grants to providers who offer reproductive and sexual health care, free of cost, to patients with low-incomes and those who lack health care coverage for reproductive health services is greater than ever,” Weber said after the draft opinion was leaked this spring.

Studying funding for abortion care

• What it is: AB 2205, from Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, D-Sacramento, would mandate further study of how much Covered California health plans are allocating to abortion care. Health insurers would be required to report the total amount of funds maintained in a segregated account. Expanded information, proponents say, would allow the state to know where abortion funding is necessary.
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 57-17. In Senate.
• What they’re saying: “It is more important than ever that California continues to make reproductive rights a top priority,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “As such, it is critical to identify available state dollars and resources to ensure California can continue to serve patients seeking abortion services in our state.”

Protecting Californians who end pregnancies or experience pregnancy loss

• What it is: AB 2223, from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, would protect Californians from civil and criminal liability if they experience a miscarriage, a self-induced or criminal abortion, or infant death due to pregnancy-related causes. Also removes requirement that a coroner investigate deaths “related to or following known or suspected self-induced or criminal abortion.”
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 48-21. In Senate Health Committee.
• What they’re saying: “Basically the whole point is we want to make sure that if you do experience a miscarriage, if you experience a stillbirth, if you experience a self-induced abortion, you have a self-induced abortion, that you are not criminally prosecuted for that,” Wicks told the LA Times.

Funding reproductive healthcare that prioritizes marginalized groups

• What it is: AB 2320, from Assemblymember Christina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, would fund primary care clinics providing reproductive services in five counties through a pilot program. Clinics participating would focus on stronger care for marginalized patients.
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 54-15. In Senate Appropriations Committee
• What they’re saying: “The supporters state that this bill sets a precedent of care for the nation by empowering community health clinic clinicians and staff to tailor their reproductive healthcare services to the communities they serve, while centering marginalized patients in their approach,” bill analysis reads.

Expanding the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act

• What it is: The Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act created a contract program between state and medical institutions to increase the number of Californians “receiving quality education and training in specified primary care specialties.” AB 2529, from Assemblymembers Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, and Lisa Calderon, D-Whittier, would create Certified Nurse-Midwifery and Licensed Midwifery programs eligible for funding under the Act. Proponents say this would expand quality maternity care.
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 76-0. In Senate Appropriations Committee
• What they’re saying: “Midwives are critically important professionals when it comes to maternal care and in many cases are the point of contact for an expectant mother starting from conception all the way until childbirth and afterwards,” bill analysis reads.
  
  

Investigating reproductive health inequities in California

• What it is: AB 2586, from Garcia, would create working group looking into causes of inequity in reproductive health systems. Group would submit findings to Legislature by start of 2024. Would create California Reproductive Justice and Freedom Fund, for education on reproductive health and abortion for “disproportionately impacted communities.”
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 52-17. In Senate committee.
• What they’re saying: “The reality is that BIPOC communities lack tangible access to wraparound reproductive and sexual health care, as well as the comprehensive, medically accurate, culturally congruent information necessary to make the best choices for themselves and their families,” bill’s authors state.

Protecting physicians who perform abortions

• What it is: AB 2626, from Calderon, would ban removal or suspension of physicians’ licenses for performing an abortion that complies with California law. Geared toward protecting against attacks on physicians’ licenses from other states.
  
  
• Where it’s at: Passed Assembly 56-15. In Senate Health Committee
• What they’re saying: “We must stand firm against the chilling effect these restrictive laws will have and state clearly that a California clinician who provides safe abortion care that is legal here will not be punished even if the patient is a resident of a state with severe restrictions,” Dr. Daniel Grossman said in testimony in support of the bill.

A pilot program in LA County

• What it is: SB 1245 from Senator Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles, would create the Los Angeles County Abortion Access Safe Haven Pilot Program. Would be focused on expanding access to reproductive health care through “innovative approaches and patient-centered collaborations.”
• Where it’s at: Passed Senate 30-9. In Assembly Judiciary Committee
• What they’re saying: “As the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the County of Los Angeles, I view it my obligation to both prosecute crimes committed and do everything in my power to increase public safety by supporting legislation which will prevent crimes from occurring and avoid the victimization of individuals who make private and very personal decisions relating their reproductive rights,” LA District Attorney George Gascon wrote in statement of support.

Lindsey Holden contributed reporting.

This story was originally published June 24, 2022 at 2:51 PM.