Controversial: Nurses could soon be allowed to perform abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy
Nurses in California could soon be allowed to perform abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Nurse practitioners and certified nurse-midwives would be allowed to perform abortions instead of doctors.
Supporters of the bill - which has passed the Californian legislature - say increasing access to abortions in the early stages of pregnancy would be safer for women.
They say it will decrease abortions in the latter stages of pregnancy which are more expensive and dangerous.
The bill would allow non-physicians to perform 'manual vacuum aspiration abortions' which involve inserting a small tube attached to a pump into the uterus which removes fetal tissue.
Before they would be allowed to carry out the procedure themselves, nurses would have to conduct at least 40 abortions under direct supervision before receiving an assessment .
Speaking to The Huffington Post, Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, who wrote the measure, said there is a huge lack of abortion providers in California.
She said: 'All women should have timely access to reproductive health care, regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas and without excessive expense or travel.'
A number of groups are opposed to the bill including the California Right to Life Committee, the California Catholic Conference. They say it could lead to health risks.
Speaking to the Huffington Post, the California Catholic Conference said: 'It is surprising that the legislature would consider approving this lowered standard of care for women, when possible complications from an abortion include incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, infection, cervical injury and uterine perforation -- and in rare cases, death.'
The bill has easily passed the Assembly and the Senate and now awaits approval of amendments before it goes to Governor Jerry Brown.
Change: Nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and physician assistants would be allowed to perform abortions instead of doctors. This is a file picture of a nurse
A University of California study earlier this year found that trained non-physicians can provide early abortion care that is clinically as safe as physicians.
Opponents say more providers are not needed becasue California already has the highest rate of abortion in the U.S.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2405811/Nurses-perform-abortions-12-weeks-pregnancy-new-Californian-bill.html#ixzz2dPqYH5k8
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