Potential Roe overturn places increased importance on California’s 13-bill reproductive health package, state leaders say – State of Reform – State of Reform
With the prospect of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, California leaders have been vocal about their determination to maintain the state’s status as a safe haven for individuals seeking abortion and other reproductive health care.
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The California Legislative Women’s Caucus rel…….
With the prospect of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, California leaders have been vocal about their determination to maintain the state’s status as a safe haven for individuals seeking abortion and other reproductive health care.
Get the latest state-specific policy intelligence for the health care sector delivered to your inbox.
The California Legislative Women’s Caucus released a 13-bill package in March seeking to strengthen and expand access to abortion. Sen. Nancy Skinner (D–Berkeley), Vice-Chair of the caucus, told State of Reform that the caucus had started collaborating with the Future of Abortion Council on this bill package over 6 months ago in preparation for a possible overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“The Future of Abortion Council … helped us put together [this package of bills] to basically ensure that reproductive access was going to be protected and funded in California,” Skinner said. “But also, to make it clear to people that may need to come to another state [to access this care] that California will serve as a beacon for reproductive justice and reproductive access.”
Below is a list and description of the bills in the package. One of them, SB 245, was recently signed into law, while the rest are still going through the legislative process.
- AB 1666 (Bauer-Kahan): This bill would protect abortion patients and providers in California from civil actions and financial retaliation they may face in the patient or provider’s origin state where providing or obtaining an abortion is illegal, and prohibit this other state’s laws from being applied in California.
- AB 1918 (Petrie-Norris): This bill would establish the California Reproductive Health Service Corps (RHSC) within the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) to recruit, train, and retain a diverse workforce of reproductive health care professionals to work in underserved areas.
- AB 2091 (Bonta): This bill would prohibit a health care provider, a health plan, or a contractor from releasing medical information related to an individual seeking or obtaining an abortion in response to a subpoena or a request if that subpoena or request is based on another state or country’s laws that criminalize abortions.
- AB 2134 (Weber): This bill would establish the California Reproductive Health Equity Program to provide grant funding to safety net providers who offer abortion and contraceptive services to increase access to these services …….
