April 27, 2023
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
AB 576, as amended, Medi-Cal: reimbursement for abortion.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services.
The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law provides that abortion is a covered benefit under Medi-Cal. Existing regulation authorizes reimbursement for specified medications used to terminate a pregnancy though the 70th day from the first day of the recipient’s last menstrual period.
This bill would require the department, by March 1, 2024, to review and update Medi-Cal coverage policies for medication abortion to align with current evidence-based clinical guidelines. After the initial review, the bill would require the department to update its Medi-Cal coverage policies for medication abortion as need to align with evidence-based clinical guidelines.
The bill would require the department to allow flexibility for providers to exercise the clinical judgment when services are performed in a manner that aligns with one or more evidence-based clinical guidelines.
(This means Medi-Cal patients will have free abortions using the pill method.)
Hearing: May 3 @ 9:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 1100
SB 385, Physician Assistant Practice Act: abortion by aspiration: training.
The Physician Assistant Practice Act establishes the Physician Assistant Board to license and regulate physician assistants. Existing law makes it a crime to perform an abortion without holding a license to practice as a physician and surgeon or holding a specified license or certificate under the Physician Assistant Practice Act that authorizes the holder to perform specified functions necessary for an abortion.
The act requires a physician assistant to complete training and comply with certain protocols, as specified, to receive authority from the physician assistant’s supervising physician and surgeon to perform an abortion by aspiration techniques.
This bill would revise the training requirements to instead require a physician assistant to achieve clinical competency by successfully completing requisite training, as described, in performing an abortion by aspiration techniques.
The bill would set forth what types of training qualify. The bill would remove the requirement that a physician assistant follow certain protocols to receive authority from the physician assistant’s supervising physician and surgeon to perform an abortion by aspiration techniques.
This bill would authorize a physician assistant who has completed the training and achieved clinical competency, as described, to perform abortions by aspirations techniques without the personal presence of a supervising physician and surgeon, except as provided.
The bill would require a physician assistant to practice abortion by aspiration techniques consistent with applicable standards of care, within the scope of their clinical and professional education and training, and pursuant to their practice agreement.
Hearing: May 1 @ 10:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 2200
AB 1306, as amended, State government: immigration enforcement
This bill is known as the Harmonizing Our Measurers for Equality (HOME).
Existing law, the California Values Act, prohibits a California law enforcement agency, defined as including both state and local agencies but excluding the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, from providing a person’s release date or responding to a request for notification of a release date, unless that information is available to the public.
This bill would prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from detaining on the basis of a hold request (illegal immigrant), providing an immigration authority with release date information or responding to a notification request, transferring to an immigration authority, or facilitating or assisting with a transfer request any individual who is eligible for release pursuant to specified provisions, including among others youth offender, elderly, and medical parole release.
Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to cooperate with the United States Department of Homeland Security by providing the use of prison facilities, transportation, and general support, as needed, for the purposes of conducting and expediting deportation hearings and subsequent placement of deportation holds on undocumented immigrants who are incarcerated in state prison.
Existing law requires the department to identify inmates serving terms in state prison who are undocumented aliens subject to deportation. Existing law would require the department, upon the enactment of any federal law requiring these persons to be incarcerated in federal prison, to provide this information to the federal government, as specified.
This bill would repeal these provisions.
(The goal is to prevent prisons from handing illegal immigrants to ICE upon their release.)
Hearing: May 3 @ 9:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 1100
Update to SB 760
SB 760, as amended, School facilities: all-gender restrooms.
Existing law requires every restroom of every public and private school maintaining any combination of classes from kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, to be maintained and cleaned regularly, fully operational, and stocked at all times with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels or functional hand dryers, and kept open during school hours when pupils are not in classes.
Existing law requires that a sufficient number of restrooms be kept open during school hours when pupils are in classes.
This bill would require, on or before July 1, 2025, each school district, county office of education, and charter school, including charter schools operating in a school district facility, maintaining any combination of classes from kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, to provide at least one all-gender restroom for voluntary pupil use at each of its schoolsites.
The bill would require the all-gender restroom to meet certain requirements, including, among other things, that it has signage identifying the bathroom facility as being open to all genders and is unlocked, unobstructed, and easily accessible by any pupil. The bill would authorize a local educational agency to use an existing restroom to satisfy these requirements, as provided.
Hearing: May 1 @ 10:00 am in 1021 O Street, Room 2200
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