California pro-life advocates are urged to call the state legislature again over a bill that allows non-doctors to do abortions.
The bill was stopped in one legislative committee after another approved it. SB 1338 was voted out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on a party line vote with Democrats approving and Republicans voting no. But, the measure to allow nurses to kill unborn children through vacuum-suction abortions was later stopped in a Democrat-controlled panel on a surprising vote.
SB 1338 by Democrat Senator Christine Kehoe of San Diego failed in the nine-member Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee.
But, now, the bill has been re-referred to the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development. SB 1338 is set for rehearing May 7 after it was granted reconsideration by the same committee and is scheduled to be voted on again.
“Please contact committee members listed below along with their committee votes,” says the Life Priority Network. “Thank those who voted against SB 1338 and urge all committee members to VOTE NO on SB 1338, which would allow midwives, physician assistants and nurse practitioners to perform aspiration abortions. SB 1338 is imprudent and unnecessary. It will lower medical standards on a surgical procedure that has resulted in complications and deaths of women by botched legal abortions.”
“Planned Parenthood, a prime sponsor of the bill, has had incidents of medical mishaps with (presumably) licensed physicians and surgeons. SB 1338 will not improve their medical standards. More likely, it would improve their income by increasing clientele and reducing costs,” the organization said.
Assemblyman Brian Jones, who represents the same district as Kehoe, said, “This whole thing is cloaked in deceit.”
Though sponsors say allowing more unlicensed people to perform abortions will give women in rural areas more access to them, “I have not had one constituent come to me and say ‘Will you please make it easier for us to get abortions?”, he said.
“Medical safety should be of more concern than easy access to abortion in rural areas. If qualified physicians are not available there now, how is a woman’s safety improved by affording her an aspiration abortion with its potential for a punctured uterus? Medical emergency vehicles from neighboring hospitals have been seen at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Orange County,” LPN added. “How close is the nearest hospital in rural areas?”
California is “the first state that we know of that’s ever looked at rescinding and actually decreasing the standard of care that women would be getting if they go into an abortion clinic,” said Daniel McConchie, vice president of government affairs at Americans United for Life. LPN says that could create a ripple effect in other states.
As the California Catholic Conference points out, California physician assistants and nurse practitioners aren’t allowed to remove patients’ earwax let alone do surgical abortions.
Contact these Committee members and urge them to vote NO on SB 1338:
Senator Curren Price (Chair)
Los Angeles Phone: (213) 745-6656 Fax: (213) 745-6722
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4026 Fax: (916) 445-8899
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – Yes; Reconsider – Yes
Senator Bill Emmerson (Vice Chair)
Riverside Phone: (951) 680-6750 Fax: (951) 680-6757
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4037 Fax: (916) 327-2187
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – No; Reconsider – Yes
Senator Ellen Corbett
San Leandro Phone: (510) 577-2310 Fax: (510) 577-2308
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4010 Fax: (916) 327-2433
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – Yes; Reconsider – Yes
Senator Lou Correa
Santa Ana Phone: (714) 558-4400 Fax: (714) 558-4111
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4034 Fax: (916) 323-2323
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – No; Reconsider – Yes
Senator Ed Hernandez-
West Covina Phone: (626) 430-2499 Fax: (626) 430-2494
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4024 Fax: (916) 445-0485
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – Yes; Reconsider – Yes
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod
Montclair Phone: (909) 621-2783 Fax: (909) 621-7483
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4032 Fax: (916) 445-0128
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – Yes; Reconsider – Yes
Senator Tony Strickland
Simi Valley Phone: (805) 306-8886 Fax: (805) 306-8899
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4019 Fax: (916) 324-7544
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – Absent or abstain; Reconsider – Absent or abstain
Senator Juan Vargas- Democrat with 100% pro-abortion voting record. Catholic
Chula Vista Phone: (619) 409-7690 Fax: (619) 409-7688
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4040 Fax: (916) 327-3522
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – No; Reconsider – Absent or abstain
Senator Mark Wyland- Pro-life Republican
San Juan Capistrano Phone: (949) 489-9838 Fax: (949) 489-8354
Sacramento Phone: (916) 651-4038 Fax: (916) 446-7382
Votes on SB 1338: Bill – No; Reconsider – Yes
