A pro-life advocate’s worst nightmare is one of the more than a dozen abortion and “reproductive health” policies that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Tuesday.
Coroners would not be permitted to conduct an investigation into a fetal death “connected to or following known or suspected self-induced or unlawful abortion,” according to Assembly Bill 2223. The bill would additionally specify that pregnancy loss resulting from still birth, miscarriage, abortion, or perinatal death owing to factors that happened in utero would not be illegal under the Reproductive Privacy Act.
As multiple states worldwide struggle with the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, sending abortion regulations back to the states, Newsom signed the bill and vowed to “fight like hell” for individuals who want abortions.
The proposal was written by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), who told The L.A. Times that it was intended to “guarantee and codify that no individual may be criminally charged for anything that happens in utero, which has occurred in California.”
Since the early 2000s, 1,300 pregnant “women” have allegedly faced criminal charges for stillbirths, miscarriages, or “self-managed” abortions, according to Wicks.
However, California politicians who are against the bill have cautioned that by forbidding such inquiries, such rules could seriously endanger unborn infants.
Wicks has come under pressure from state senator Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore), who dubbed the legislation “horrific lack of humanity toward the unborn” when it was presented in the state assembly.
“With Newsom’s signing of AB 2223, you can now let your baby die or kill it if you try to have an abortion but it ends up being a live birth, and no one can probe the killing or hold the woman/person that assisted her criminally accountable,” Melendez said in a tweet. This displays horrific callousness for unborn children.
What California lawmakers have done with regard to abortion in the state is “horrific,” according to Susan Swift, vice president of legal affairs for the Right to Life Coalition League, who spoke to The Epoch Times.
The Right to Life League expressed its concerns about the bill in an open letter to California lawmakers in June, claiming it was poorly written and had the potential to deregulate the whole abortion business.
The letter states, “AB 2223’s overbroad phrasing generates a plethora of unanticipated legal repercussions in its attempt to protect women from punishment for abortion. The measure creates a class of participating individuals who are not answerable to state licensing agencies or rules, potentially deregulating abortion and superseding existing medical protections for women.”
According to the group, AB 2223 does far more than just protect pregnant women from legal action.
Swift told The Epoch Times that “nobody’s going to want to risk the litigation of looking into a death.” And it will hide all of the information on all of the infants that survive abortions.”
