Arizona doctors could provide abortion care to their patients in California under proposed bill
Just over two weeks after Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 law limiting most abortions in the state was valid, California government leaders will seek to pass a law that will allow Arizona doctors to come to the state to provide abortions and related health care to residents of that state.
California state senators Nancy Skinner and Cecilia Aguiar-Curry will introduce SB 233, which would allow licensed Arizona doctors to provide that care to Arizona patients in California through the end of November of this year, according to a news release from the office of the governor and the Legislative Women’s Caucus.
The bill will have an urgency clause, which will allow it to go into effect as soon as it receives the governor’s signature.
If passed, the Arizona doctors will be overseen by the California Medical Board Osteopathic Medical Board.
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“I want to give a shoutout to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, because she had the courage to put out the call to neighboring states to support Arizona doctors and patients, and that’s what we are responding to,” said Skinner at a news conference.
Mayes said soon after the court’s ruling that her office would seek to not enforce the law.
In Arizona, access to abortion will start to be severely limited on June 8 because of the 19th-century law that will be allowed to go into effect.
The law states that anyone who “provides, supplies or administers” an abortion or medication that induces an abortion could face a prison sentence of several years unless the procedure is necessary to save the mother’s life.
The action from California leaders is the latest in an attempt to expand protections for abortion-related care in the state.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that it is up to states to regulate abortions, California has enshrined reproductive health care in its Constitution through a voter-approved amendment, and new laws have limited cooperation with other states that seek to prosecute women and their providers who travel to California for an abortion or related care.
At the news conference, Jodi Hicks, the president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said SB 233 was another “tool” that the state has used to strengthen reproductive health care since the 2022 Dobbs decision.
“Planned Parenthood in California welcomes any of these tools for anyone that seeks abortion care here in California. I just want to be clear, No one should have to travel outside of the state they live in in order to get care,” Hicks said.
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