Arizona doctors could soon be able to give their patients abortions in California, under a proposal announced Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The move is aimed at circumventing a near-total abortion ban that is set to take effect in Arizona on June 8.
The proposed bill would allow doctors licensed in good standing in Arizona to provide abortions to their patients in California. The bill would only be in effect through the end of November.
“This Arizona law is the first border-state law that will directly impact the state of California,” Newsom said. “Rather than just acknowledging that fate and future, we’re trying to get ahead of this law.”
Newsom, who is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate beyond 2024, has made defending abortion access a priority of his administration. He has pushed for abortion access to be enshrined into the California Constitution and has allocated taxpayer money to help pay for women in other states to come to California for abortions.
He has also signed laws aimed at making it harder for other states to investigate women for coming to California for abortions, including banning social media companies from sharing user data with law enforcement or issuing warrants.
These actions have endeared him to the Democratic Party’s core constituencies despite some of the state’s other problems, including homelessness, wildfire insurance, and a pair of multibillion-dollar budget deficits.
In 2022, months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, California launched a campaign to promote the state’s abortion services, including information about financial help for travel expenses and letting teenagers in other states know that California does not require them to have their parents’ permission to get an abortion in the state.
Newsom has also used money left over from his 2022 reelection campaign to start a political action committee that has paid for billboards and TV ads in Republican-led states to criticize their leaders’ attempts to outlaw or restrict access to abortions.
