Senate OKs Letting Nurses Prescribe RU-486

The state Senate voted Thursday to allow certain nurses and other nonphysician health-care providers to legally prescribe the controversial abortion pill RU-486, dismissing opponents’ warnings that it would endanger the lives of California women.

In an intense debate, supporters of SB 1301 insisted it would apply to state licensed health professionals who already are authorized to write prescriptions under a doctor’s supervision except for abortion purposes.

“If you can do it for other procedures, you can do it for this,” argued Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), the bill’s author.

On a party-line vote, 22 Democrats voted for it and 11 Republicans voted no.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the Assembly. Gov. Gray Davis has taken no position on it, a spokesman said.

In a separate action, the Senate approved and forwarded to the Assembly a bill that would suspend the statute of limitations in certain cases and allow victims of child sexual abuse to sue the Roman Catholic Church or other organizations long after the assault occurred.

The measure by Senate leader John L. Burton, a Democrat and Roman Catholic from San Francisco, said the lawsuits could be brought against the church or other responsible third-party defendants if they knew or should have known of child sex abuse but did not take reasonable steps to stop it.

Burton said he introduced the bill (SB 1779) as the result of recently publicized cases in which church officials knew of the sexual abuse of boys and girls but allegedly covered it up and reassigned the offending priests to duties where they continued to have contact with children.

No one opposed the bill, including major employer organizations and the statewide California Catholic Conference, which represents every Roman Catholic diocese in California.

Edward E. Dolejsi, executive director of the conference, said he doubted the church would take a position on the legislation. He said it was uncertain it would be beneficial to “get involved in that particular issue.”

The legislation would suspend the statute of limitations in cases in which an adult victim wanted to sue a third-party defendant, such as the church, but was prohibited from doing so because time had run out.

Currently, adults who reach age 26 cannot file. The bill would give victims who allege they had been damaged by childhood abuse three extra years in which to sue.

In cases filed against a third-party defendant but dismissed because the statute had run out, a one-year extension would be granted so the case could be refiled.

Davis also has no position on this bill, his spokesman said.

While the California Catholic Conference chose to watch the Burton bill from the sidelines, it lobbied hard against passage of the bill to allow nonphysicians to prescribe abortion pills.

“It’s irresponsible.... It puts women’s health in jeopardy for the sake of convenience and expedience. It goes way beyond the pale of what most people would consider the responsible practice of abortion in California,” Dolejsi said.

Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), the Legislature’s leading abortion opponent, tried to amend out the prescription provisions, but his effort was thwarted by majority Democrats.

“The only reason for putting this bill in is to allow non-doctors to perform abortions,” Haynes said. “We are going to be subjecting women all over this state to serious injury and possibly death.”

He claimed that in the last few weeks, there had been four serious injuries and two deaths to women who had taken RU-486.

Kuehl said there was no evidence that those cases involved the drug.

Under the California Therapeutic Abortion Act, signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in the late 1960s, only physicians operating in approved hospitals can perform an abortion.

It is against the law for other licensed professionals, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants and midwives, to perform an abortion or assist in one, Kuehl said. She said that prescribing the RU-486 pills is a noninvasive act that comes nowhere near the performing of a surgical abortion.