By Kristen Hwang

WHAT THE BILLS WOULD DO

As other states move to criminalize or severely restrict abortion, a cadre of bills protecting women and medical providers from prosecution are headed to the governor. Headlining that effort is AB 2223 by Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland. It protects a woman or pregnant person who chooses to end a pregnancy from prosecution, even if the abortion is self-induced or happens outside of the medical system. It also abolishes the requirement that coroners investigate stillbirths and protects someone who helps a pregnant person end their pregnancy voluntarily from criminal or civil liability.

AB 2626, by Democratic Assemblymember Lisa Calderon of Whittier, prevents professional licensing boards from punishing doctors, physicians assistants, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives for performing abortions by revoking their license. It also prevents licensing boards from denying licenses to medical professionals who were punished in other states for performing abortions.

Stacked on top of those protections are enhanced safeguards for medical records. AB 2091, by Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta of Oakland, prohibits medical providers, health insurers and prison staff from disclosing abortion-related medical records to out-of-state law enforcement officials who seek to use that information to prosecute an individual for getting an abortion. It also protects someone who has knowledge of an abortion from disclosing the identity of the person who got the abortion. In a last-minute amendment, lawmakers also snuck in protections for medical records related to gender-affirming health care.

WHO SUPPORTS THEM

The Future of Abortion Council, created by the governor, supports all three bills along with Attorney General Rob Bonta, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and a number of professional medical groups and patient advocacy groups.

WHO IS OPPOSED

AB 2223 garnered the most opposition, spurring heated protests outside the Capitol amid allegations that the bill is overbroad and legalizes infanticide, which supporters strongly deny. Notably, law enforcement has not weighed in. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Prior to state legislators focusing on creating a bulwark for abortion rights, two women in Kings County were imprisoned and charged with murder after delivering stillborns and testing positive for methamphetamine use. The controversial cases spurred Bonta to issue an alert to law enforcement not to prosecute women who miscarry or have a stillbirth. Abortion rights advocates contend that the cases open the door to prosecute people who pursue a self-induced abortion and seek to prohibit that outcome.

AB 2091 also seeks to outmaneuver laws in places such as Texas, where private citizens may sue abortion providers. More than a dozen states have announced plans to model abortion bans on Texas’ law. California providers report already seeing patients from many of those states.

GOVERNOR’S CALL ✅

Newsom signed the bills on Sept. 27. “An alarming number of states continue to outlaw abortion and criminalize women, and it’s more important than ever to fight like hell for those who need these essential services. We’re doing everything we can to protect people from any retaliation for accessing abortion care while also making it more affordable to get contraceptives,” he said in a statement.