Abortion availability was extended in California on Wednesday, after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that lets nurse practitioners, midwives and physician's assistants to conduct aspiration abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington currently allow nurse practitioners to carry out this commonly-performed abortion that uses a tube and suction to extract a fetus. Other states - California among them - permit non-physician practitioners to carry out surgical terminations of pregnancy, the New York Times reported. Amid stacks of legislation barring women from getting abortions in certain states, the Golden State has remained steadfast in its mission to keep abortion options available to women.
"We are trending in a different direction, and we're very proud of it," Toni Atkins, the state assemblywoman who wrote the bill, told the New York Times. "California has a strong history of support for reproductive healthcare for women."
Atkins added that in some areas, women have a hard time finding someone who will perform a termination of pregnancy.
"This is an issue of accessibility," Atkins continued. "California is a very large state, and more than half the counties don't have an abortion provider."
Meanwhile, opponents of the bill such as director of the National Right to Life's Western regional office Brian Johnston said that this piece of legislation could put women's lives in danger.
"This bill trivializes what is taking place with abortion," Johnston told the New York Times. "It will massively expand the number of abortions and at the same time reduce safety. For those who say they care about women's health, they're doing the opposite, reducing the medical standards for abortion."
But leader of the study Dr. Tracy Weitz insisted that the program, which started in 2007, did fairly well during its trial period, in which 8,000 aspiration abortions were performed by nonphysicians.
"This is a very safe procedure, and we now have a very large study to show that this does not compromise safety," Weitz told the New York Times. "Most people saying it compromises safety actually have an agenda to make abortion illegal, which we know from decades of experience actually makes abortion unsafe."
California - a state where both houses of the Legislature are controlled by Democrats - has maintained an open-availability approach to abortion in recent years. In fact, it's the only state to have broadened access to pregnancy terminations this year.
According to and official at the Guttmacher Institute, an advocacy group for sexual and reproductive health, who spoke with the New York Times, 68 bills tightening up on abortion availability and education have been passed by states other than California this year.
"California is moving in a direction to protect reproductive health, as other states across the country are passing abortion restrictions," state issues manager Elizabeth Nash said.
