The bill would allow some trained medical clinicians to perform first term, surgical abortions. Democratic Assemblywomen Toni Atkins says it would increase access for women.
“In California,” she says, “women in many medically underserved and rural areas who choose to terminate a pregnancy must leave their communities and travel long distances, delaying access to care, to find a clinician who provides the service.”
Atkins says a University of San Francisco study found no difference in complication rates between physicians and clinicians performing early term abortions.
But Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen says the measure shortchanges rural women.
“We should stand up and say we deserve the same access to highly trained medical professionals who went to medical schoo,” she says,” who have a medical degree, who are trained physicians, as women do in other wealthier or urban parts of the state.“
The bill passed the Assembly 48 to 27. It now moves to the Senate.
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