California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a bill Wednesday that would expand access to abortion for Arizona residents after the state Supreme Court upheld a near-abortion ban this month.
The bill would allow Arizona doctors to provide abortion services for Arizona residents in California until the end of the calendar year.
“The Arizona law is the first border state law that will directly affect the state of California,” Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday. “And rather than acknowledge that fate and future, we’re trying to get ahead of this law.”
Newsom said the bill would allow health care providers in Arizona to “provide this essential care to patients who are fleeing from the state of Arizona to the state of California.”
The proposed law would also protect Arizona doctors who come to California to provide abortion services from enforcement in other states. State Sen. Nancy Skinner, who authored the bill, said Wednesday that the bill would bar California law enforcement agencies from contacting law enforcement agencies in other states trying to prosecute people under abortion bans.
“Our Arizona sisters can come to California to get the health care they need from their trusted doctors, and Arizona doctors can come to California without fear of two to five years in prison,” Skinner said Wednesday.
Dr. Tanya V. Spirtos, president of the California Medical Association, co-sponsored the proposed bill with Newsom and the California Legislative Women’s Caucus on Wednesday.
Arizona’s “sentences will put doctors at a disadvantage in providing often life-saving medical care to their patients,” Spirtos said.
“Unfortunately, Arizona women will have to travel long distances outside of their home state, far from their support networks, to seek health care, but I’m proud that California is stepping up to offer help,” she said.
Newsom spoke hours before the Arizona State House voted Repeal the Act of 1864 makes anyone who commits an abortion or assists a woman in obtaining an abortion a crime punishable by two to five years in prison. The bill now goes to the state Senate for consideration.