Bill would allow non-physicians to perform abortions

The state's Catholic bishops strongly oppose AB 154.

40 Days for LIfe co-ordinator Wynette Sills says AB 154..." would contradict Roe v. Wade by authorizing non-physicians to perform first trimester abortions in California. We must put the health and safety of women first, rather than the profits of the abortion industry, which will cut their costs by using lesser paid non-physician staff to perform these surgeries. The University of California at San Francisco conducted an extensive study which found women whose abortions were done by non-physicians experienced twice as many complications than women whose abortions were performed by physicians, and that was under the very best research-based clinical conditions. Many of the women hurt by abortion are poor, marginalized, lacking political power -- the young teenager, the non-English speaking immigrant, the abused, the victims of sex-trafficking, and other women who are too frightened to speak up about their mistreatment and suffering from abortion".

Contact Assemblyman Chesbro to urge a no vote on AB 154. Reproductive justice must first assure the health and safety of all women.

Another - AB 980 Building Standards (Pan-D, Sacramento) - introduced as a companion to AB 154. This bill would allow primary care clinics that provide aspiration abortions to ignore building codes that they currently must follow (e.g., a post-abortion recovery area, a counseling area for patients, and other requirements for patient safety.) It is hard to believe that after hearing the horror stories about the Gosnell clinic in Philadelphia people would be trying to further the ridiculously low standard of care at abortion clinics.

The representative for district 8 is Ken CooleySee map in new tab At a town Hall meeting at Starbucks in his district on May 11th he was asked about AB 154 and its companion bill AB 980. He knew little about them. Instead of answering the question asked him (how he intended to vote) he told us that his grandmother had died from an illegal abortion in Oklahoma and that has shaped his thinking in favor of legal abortion. We're sorry to hear that bad news. It was pointed out that the net effect of these two bills would be to make abortion even more dangerous than when it was illegal, and the Philadelphia and other cases of gross mistreatment of women were cited. He stated empahtically twice that he is unfamiliar with these cases. That shows us how much work we must do to inform him and so many other legislators. Then he stated he would wait to see the bills and decide when the time came, and rather expeditiously moved on to another topic. Mr. Cooley's efforts to determine the will of his constituents are laudatory. He will be holding another meeting on May 25th at Starbucks located at 3539 Bradshaw Rd Sacramento, CA 95827 starting at 11am. If you want to help direct his attention to this issue, please come to that meeting. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. Your presence will be effective.