Remember, of course, that this is all about women’s health.  California already allows non-physicians to administer drug-induced abortions, but the state legislature has now passed a new law that clears nurses, physician assistants, and midwives to perform suction abortions in the first trimester:

Nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants could perform a type of early abortion under a bill approved Monday by the state Senate, leaving the measure one step from the governor.

The measure by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would let those medical professionals perform what are known as aspiration abortions during the first trimester. The method involves inserting a tube and using suction to terminate a pregnancy.

Opponents in the legislature wondered how lowering the standards of providers could be squared with the oft-invoked concern for womens’ health from pro-abortion activists and the backers of this bill:

“Abortion is a serious medical procedure with vast complications, and I would argue that only the best-trained should conduct such an operation,” said Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber. “It has direct and profound impact on lives: the mother and the baby — and there is a baby.”

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said legalized abortion was supposed to end the days when women’s lives were put at risk. Yet he said Atkins’ bill would allow the procedures by providers who have less training and in clinics without sufficient backup if there are complications.

The entire effort seems very odd, especially in California.  In some states, notably conservative Mississippi, so few abortion providers exist that abortion-rights activists might well demand some kind of similar relief, and probably already have been demanding it.  That hardly seems relevant in liberal California, however.  Planned Parenthood alone has 20 locations in the Golden State, from Alhambra to Yuba City.  Access is hardly an issue in one of the most liberal states in the nation.

While the legislature is at it, why not allow midwives to do liposuction, too?  After all, a liposuction only removes fat, not a “clump of cells,” as some would have it, and that fat doesn’t get removed from an internal organ susceptible to perforation. Liposuction gets pricy for the working class, so it’s not really fair that only a doctor can suction fat out of a body.  Yet in 2011, California was identified as one of the five toughest states for regulating outpatient cosmetic surgery centers:

California. Under a law passed in January, California’s medical board keeps a list of accredited outpatient surgery settings. The board approved four accreditation agencies that inspect and accredit outpatient surgery settings, including medical offices and spas. These agencies can reject, revoke, or otherwise restrict a facility’s accreditation. If that happens, the medical board is notified and alerts the public on its website.

Lila Rose, president of the pro-life activist organization Live Action is appalled:

The pro-abortion lobby will stop at nothing to force an abortion-first mentality on women and families–violencing weak and defenseless pre-born children, and ignoring common-sense protections for women in some of their most vulnerable moments.

‘All women deserve access to health care in their local communities’…even if it kills them, or their children.  That’s the thought process behind this actual quotation from Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, regarding California’s ill-advised new law expanding abortions in the state.

In what other realm of business does this bizarre standard pass muster?  Do you let a butcher build your house because you ‘deserve access to’ a carpenter?  Do you let a nurse do your bypass surgery because you ‘deserve access to’ a cardiologist?  Nowhere else does ‘we really need it, therefore let unqualified people do it’ make sense – and the mentality doesn’t make sense here, either.  In fact, it’s downright dangerous.

In the wake of Kermit Gosnell, in whose abortion facility a woman died from an untrained staff member’s mistake, it’s unthinkable for lawmakers in California to push a law like this.  How many more times will my home state carry water for this unregulated industry which makes its money off of the vulnerable moments of women and by murdering pre-born children?

At least once more, if Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill after the Assembly resolves differences in amendments between the two chambers.