Denver Newsroom, Jul 18, 2022 / 15:30 pm
An amendment to a California abortion bill ensuring it would not protect cases of infanticide is just one of many possible amendments that would improve it, the state Catholic conference has said.
AB 2223, dubbed an ‘infanticide bill’ by some pro-lifers, is intended to prevent the investigation and prosecution of women who procure abortion or have miscarriage. It would remove a requirement that coroners investigate the deaths of fetuses after 20 weeks that are related to or following known or suspected self-induced or criminal abortion.
The bill is not supported by the California Catholic Conference, which agreed to drop its opposition after the text's "most egregious" language was amended.
The bill’s principal author, Buffy Wicks, a Democratic Assemblywoman representing Oakland, has cited the cases of two California women, Chelsea Becker and Adora Perez, that led to her drafting the text. The two faced charges after delivering stillborn children who had methamphetamine in their systems.