Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Victory for California Women: 
Women’s Access to Safe and Legal Abortion Expands 

NEW YORK, NY – Today, after years of work by Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed into law two pieces of legislation that expand California women’s access to safe and legal abortion.  

These important victories for California women’s health comes as state legislatures across the country have enacted a record number of restrictions on abortion, resulting in an unprecedented outcry from women’s health supporters in states across the country – from Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and elsewhere. 

Statement from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

“California is leading the way for the rest of the country, showing that this is not the time to go backwards on access to safe and legal abortion.  Today almost half of California counties don’t have an accessible abortion provider, and thanks to this new law, access to abortion for women in rural and underserved communities will be greatly expanded. 

“This is an important step toward ensuring politics and geography cannot interfere with the medical decisions that belong to a woman and her health care provider.  That Governor Jerry Brown is signing this legislation into law at a time when Planned Parenthood organizations are fighting in statehouses and courthouses across the country against policies that would take women back to the 1950s makes this victory for California women all the more important.”  

BACKGROUND

Authored by Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins, Assembly Bill 154 will allow nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants to perform early abortions safely within the terms of their licenses. The practice was demonstrated to be safe in a six-year research project conducted by researchers at the University of California San Francisco, and the legislation has been hailed as a "necessary measure to ensure women have access to safe procedures." 

Assembly Bill 980, authored by Assemblyman Dr. Richard Pan, M.D., will uphold rigorous standards for facility safety, while deleting laws that single out health centers where abortion is provided for additional requirements that do not advance patient health or safety.  

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our Necessary Cookies as they are deployed to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.