California Rolls Out More Abortion Protections Ahead Of Trump's Return

"Rights don't really do us any good if we can't access them," one incoming lawmaker said.

In anticipation of more hostility toward abortion under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, California lawmakers announced two new pieces of legislation Monday aimed at protecting medication abortion and punishing local governments that interfere with access to reproductive health care.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the bills at a press conference, saying Californians are in an “urgent and dangerous situation” with Trump returning to office and Republicans soon controlling both chambers in Congress.

One of the legislative proposals, the Medication Abortion Access bill, seeks to ensure that medication abortion ― a two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol ― is protected and available everywhere in California, including in its so-called health care deserts where medical providers are harder to come by.

“Rights don’t really do us any good if we can’t access them,” said Assemblymember-elect Maggy Krell, who co-authored the bill with Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry. The goal of the bill is to ensure that medication abortion ― the most common way of terminating a pregnancy ― is “not just a constitutional right that lives in a constitutional document on paper,” she said.

The legislation “will ensure that patients and providers have access to what they need, to mifepristone, to misoprostol, and protect the transportation, the mailing, the supplying of everything that would be needed for a medication abortion,” Krell continued at Monday’s press conference.