California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a law protecting doctors and pharmacists who mail abortion pills to women in banned states.
The law bans California authorities from cooperating with law enforcement from states where abortion is banned when investigating abortion pills sent by mail. It also prohibits bounty hunters or bail agents from apprehending doctors, pharmacists and patients in California and transporting them to states where they are wanted for providing or receiving an abortion.
“Radical politicians continue their all out assault on women’s health care with dangerous and deadly consequences,” Newsom said in a press release after signing the bill into law. “The right to an abortion is enshrined in California’s constitution. We will continue to protect women and health care workers who are seeking and providing basic care.”
The Associated Press reports, “Other states, including New York and Massachusetts, have similar laws. But California’s law also bars state-based social media companies — like Facebook — from complying with out-of-state subpoenas, warrants or other requests for records to discover the identity of patients seeking abortion pills.”
The legislation will not protect California-based doctors if they travel out of state to perform an abortion.
“As abortions, contraception, and other essential health care continue to be criminalized across the country, California is not backing dow,” Sen. Nancy Skinner, author of the bill, said in a statement. “With Governor Newsom’s signing of these groundbreaking new bills authored by members of the Legislative Women’s Caucus and sponsored by the California Future of Abortion Council, we have solidified our position as the national leader for reproductive freedom. These bills further strengthen and expand California’s legal protections for patients, doctors, nurses and everyone involved in providing and dispensing reproductive and gender-affirming care.”
The California Catholic Conference has spoken out against the bill, saying that the state is “engaging in ideological colonization against states and citizens that do not want abortion.”
“Denying the legitimate interest of other states to protect unborn children and public health is a dangerous precedent,” the association wrote in a letter to California lawmakers.
