California pro-life advocates are very worried that the third time may be the charm for a bill in the state legislature that would allow nurses to do abortions.
The bill has already failed twice before. However, tt appears the legislative situation has changed thanks to a trick from the pro-abortion lawmaker sponsoring it, and the bill could find itself on the fast track through the legislature, according to the California Family Council.
“In a move reminiscent of the bait-and-switch days of the seedy car salesman, state Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) has shown her prowess in working the system at the cost of women’s safety and preborn babies,” the group says. “In a classic legislative move, Sen. Kehoe has taken Senate Bill (SB 623) an environmental bill she authored on the regulation of marine “fouling paint,” removed all the language pertaining to that issue and replaced it with new language that expands an ongoing pilot program allowing non-physicians to perform surgical abortions.”
“Although not as sweeping as SB 1338 – her earlier measure that would have allowed licensed physician assistants, nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives to perform suction abortions outright – this bill not only suspends current law but also offers the same theme of lowering standards of care,” CFC says.
Kehoe pulled SB 1338 from consideration after two Democrats on the Senate Business, Professions & Economic Development Committee broke from their party to nix the bill after their offices were inundated with calls and letters opposing the measure.
However, by “gutting and amending” SB 623, CFC says Kehoe has temporarily bypassed the Senate, which already approved the bill as an environmental law, and is now navigating the measure through the Assembly, where it sits in the Health Committee.
The pro-life group explains: “The new law would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to allow the pilot program to extend through Jan. 1, 2014 to “among other specified reasons, provide the sponsors of the project an opportunity to achieve publication of the data collected during the project in a peer-reviewed journal.”
If approved by the Assembly, the bill would likely go back to a Senate policy committee for review before heading to the Senate floor for a concurring vote.
“Beyond the moral considerations of killing a life, using women as lab rats for such serious procedures flies in the face of the pro-abortion movement’s mantra, which for decades has been to provide trained physicians to prevent botched abortions,” CFC complains.
The Assembly Health Committee has set a hearing for the bill on July 3 and the panel includes 12 Democrats and six Republicans, making it more likely that the measure will receive approval from the panel.
