Senate Passes Legislation to Allow Nurses to Prescribe Mifepristone
The Senate yesterday passed a bill (SB 1301) that would allow nurses and other health care providers who are not physicians to prescribe the "controversial" abortion pill mifepristone under a doctor's supervision, the Los Angeles Times reports. State law prohibits nurse practitioners, physician assistants and midwives to perform or assist in surgical abortions. The bill would allow "state-licensed health professionals who already are authorized to write prescriptions under a doctor's supervision" to prescribe mifepristone to induce a medical abortion (Ingram, Los Angeles Times, 5/17). The legislation also would ensure that "every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to reproductive decisions, including the fundamental right to choose or refuse birth control and the fundamental right to choose to bear a child or obtain an abortion" (SB 1301 text, 5/17). The bill moves to the Assembly for consideration. Gov. Gray Davis (D) has not said whether he would sign the legislation (Los Angeles Times, 5/17).
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