Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new set of reproductive health care bills into law Wednesday, including legislation that would allow doctors living under “hostile” laws in states where abortion is banned to receive training in California.

The new California law comes at a time when medical professionals in red states can face jail time for providing abortion care, and abortion training options are disappearing for obstetrician-gynecologists in places like Texas, where the procedure is banned.

“Radical politicians continue their all-out assault on women’s health care, with dangerous and deadly consequences. The right to abortion is enshrined in the California Constitution,” Newsom said in a statement Wednesday. “We will continue to protect women and healthcare workers who seek and provide basic care.”

AB 1646 from Assembly Member Stephanie Nguyen (D-Elk Grove) allows out-of-state graduates of accredited medical schools to participate in hands-on abortion training in California for 90 days and be compensated without obtaining a state medical license obtain board.

It’s part of the latest package of Democratic-backed bills that aims to make California a “sanctuary state” for abortion seekers, following the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade last year, the landmark decision that protected the right to abortion nationwide. The decision limits access to abortion for millions of women in the US

Although AB 1646 was designed with abortion in mind, the program is open to all physicians and surgeons who wish to train in California after graduation as part of required medical rotations in which they perform supervised patient care.

The California Medical Board, which supported AB 1646, noted potential concerns about relaxing provider requirements but said the policy will not “negatively impact consumer protections” because trainees will be supervised by state-licensed physicians.

Dr. Bria Peacock, resident in obstetrics and gynecology

University of California,

UC San Francisco hopes the legislation will attract more people like them. She plans to move back to her home state of Georgia when she completes her training in 2025, and has applied to medical residency programs in California, specifically looking for the best abortion training.

Even before the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision encouraged 22 states to ban or restrict abortion, Georgia had some of the strictest laws in the country. The Republican-controlled state bans abortion after about six weeks.

Peacock has seen women in her southern rural community, especially Black women, struggle to get adequate reproductive health care, with some traveling as far as Washington, D.C., for abortions. According to the Georgia Department of Community Health, at least half of the counties in her home state have no midwives.

The same low-risk procedure performed in many abortions is also used routinely in hospitals after miscarriages and to resolve abnormal uterine bleeding, Peacock told California lawmakers in Sacramento during a legislative committee hearing this summer.

“The lack of this training is life-threatening,” she said. “If this tool is not part of our training, the lives of thousands of people will be at risk.”

Peacock said she knows being an abortion lawyer in Georgia can come with personal risks, but she wants to work where she feels most needed and hopes the laws there will one day change.

“It can be very dangerous to say how I feel and where I stand,” she said. “Ultimately, it is a medical procedure between the patient and the doctor.”

While proponents of the latest reproductive health care bills say precautions are needed amid national uncertainty over access, Republicans who voted against the bills say the focus on other states’ laws is misplaced.

“I think we should focus on the people of California instead of what’s happening in other states,” said Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin), who voted against AB 1646. “We have a lot of problems here with homelessness, a fentanyl crisis, you name it. I think that should be the focus of pretty much everything we do.”

Supporters of the bill, including Planned Parenthood and the California Academy of Family Physicians, say it’s a win-win: providers like Peacock, who would otherwise be unable to learn abortion techniques, can return to their home states if they choose. while also temporarily helping with California’s provider shortage amid an influx of abortion seekers from out of state.

Although California has some of the strongest abortion protections in the country and abortion drugs are easily available in the state, 40% of counties do not have a clinic that offers surgical abortion, which is necessary for later cases, according to the Guttmacher Institute. research group that supports abortion rights.

“There is hope that some will come here and stay here,” Nguyen said of aspiring physicians. “We know there are women coming to California wanting abortions, and we need all the help we can get.”

Last year, Newsom signed thirteen abortion protection bills, including legislation that aimed to expand access by allowing nurses to perform abortions without a doctor’s supervision.

Earlier this month, the governor signed SB 385 by Senate Majority Leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), which goes a step further by allowing more physician assistants to perform abortions.

Other bills Newsom signed Wednesday include measures to protect California abortion providers who serve out-of-state patients from penalties under laws passed in other states, and privacy protections for online reproductive health data.

“As abortions, contraception and other essential health care continue to be criminalized across the country, California is not giving in,” said Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), chair of the Legislative Women’s Caucus.