California Bill Would Let Nurses and Midwives Do Abortions

From LifeSiteNews:

California Bill Would Let Nurses and Midwives Do Abortions

by Kristi Burton Brown | Sacramento, CA | LifeNews.com | 2/28/12 12:50 PM

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On Friday, Sen. Christine Kehoe proposed a bill in the California Senate that would greatly expand who can be an abortion provider in California. Apparently, there is current confusion in California over exactly who can perform abortions. Kehoe’s bill would

…clarify that the estimated 16,000 trained nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants in the state could provide first-trimester abortions in outpatient clinics and doctor’s offices.

Likely referring to the oft-cited claim that 86% of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider, Kehoe claims that her bill will give greater access to abortion to rural women who would otherwise incur what Kehoe considers multiple hardships and great expense. Ironically, the U-T San Diego News article reports that one of those hardships would be missing time away from “other children.” “Other children” of course admits that the sought abortion is designed to kill a child, but I digress.

According to California Senate Bill 1501 the new category of “providers” would be allowed to perform “an abortion by medication or aspiration techniques.” Basically, these providers would be allowed to give women the necessary medication for a Mifeprex/Misoprostol “do-it-yourself” abortion (read about these; they are horrifying), and they would also be allowed to use a vacuum machine to suck out the baby in the first trimester.

Kehoe’s bill does face opposition, notably from Assemblyman Brian Jones who makes several excellent points.

“That’s pretty aggressive,” he said. “My immediate question is where and how are they going to do these procedures. It sounds like they want to turn the clock back to the back ally practices they were against.”

Jones added that he cannot understand why Democrats want to expand abortion rights when they pass laws making it illegal for minors to use sun tan booths or get tattoos.

Several commenters on the U-T San Diego News website—including Live Action’s David Schmidt— have made accurate observations about this bill:

We have seen problems in other states like Pennsylvania and Maryland recently where there have been abortion regulation scandals and now non-Doctors are going to be authorized to perform a surgical procedure. It sounds like this is about expanding abortion at the expense of safety.

This is certainly not the time to decrease regulations on the abortion industry. Abortion clinics andproviders are under investigation for abortion-related crimes and other crimes—not to mention theCongressional investigation and multiple state investigations into Planned Parenthood for fraud. Unlawful abortion providers seem to be an epidemic. If anything, state and federal governments should be tightening the reins, not expanding their reach.

Kehoe’s bill is a ploy by pro-choice advocates. It is wrapped in the paper of “access” for rural or poor women and tied with the bow of “equal opportunity”. However, the true purpose of this bill is to increase abortions. Clearly, many women without easy access would choose to keep their baby instead of going through with an abortion. Often, the easier abortions become, the more they are performed, and this is exactly what Kehoe and her allies want.

The National Abortion Federation has put out their 2012 Clinical Policy Guidelines. Concerning who should be allowed to perform abortions, they recommend that

Abortion will be provided by licensed practitioners. This category is intended to include physicians from various specialties as well as nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered nurses, and other health professionals.

Other health professionals? Where exactly would the abortion industry draw the line on who can perform abortions? I firmly believe that they would love to see abortionists—people trained only to perform abortions—become their own sect of “health professionals.” And that should be a scary thought to everyone out there, whether pro-life or pro-choice.

In the end, it’s clear to many in the pro-choice industry that they are losing the battle on multiple fronts, including convincing doctors to perform abortions. The number of abortion doctors hascontinued to drop since Roe v. Wade was handed down. Allowing nurses, midwives, and others to perform abortions is apparently the abortion industry’s answer. The safety of women isn’t what matters to them. Access to abortion is all that counts, regardless of who performs it.

Clearly, the abortion industry isn’t into accountability, regulations, or other guidelines that provide safety for women. This is a natural outcome of making a career out of killing babies. After all, if you don’t care about the most innocent, helpless humans, are you really going to care adequately about their mothers? I don’t think so.

LifeNews Note:  Kristi Burton Brown is a pro-life activist in her home state of Colorado, a pro-bono attorney for Life Legal Defense Fund, and a stay-at-home mom. This column originally appeared at the Live Action blog.