SACRAMENTO (LifeSiteNews) — California legislators this week sent a raft of pro-abortion bills to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for a signature. Among the measures was Assembly Bill 2223, a deeply controversial measure that would prohibit investigation into the death of an unborn child and provide legal protections for anyone who obtains or helps someone obtain an abortion.
The bill also contains language that pro-life attorneys have warned could be interpreted as decriminalizing infanticide.
The Democrat-dominated California Senate passed AB 2223 in a 30-9 vote on August 30. Gov. Newsom is expected to approve the measure.
“Assembly Bill 2223 allows anyone to commit abortions, by any means, through all nine months of pregnancy,” California Right to Life outreach director Mary Rose Short told LifeSiteNews in an Thursday email. “Even if a baby is born alive, the bill penalizes state authorities who investigate infant deaths, effectively legalizing infanticide.”
“In their efforts to ensure that no abortion is illegal, California Democrats are also legalizing infanticide,” Short said.
According to the bill, no woman shall:
“be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of their rights under this article, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death due to causes that occurred in utero.”
The earlier version of the measure had ended after “perinatal death,” leading pro-life attorneys to warn that the measure could effectively legalize the murder of a child even after he has been born, since perinatal could mean any time between one week to two years of age.
READ: Pro-abortion California bill could legalize infanticide for months after birth, attorney warns