California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill designed to protect patients and employees of reproductive health clinics from anti-abortion extremists who may use violence against them. Introduced by Assembly Member Noreen Evans in February and signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, the bill, AB 2251, codifies that “no person, business, or association shall knowingly publicly post or publicly display on the Internet the home address, home telephone number, or image of any provider, employee, volunteer, or patient of a reproductive health services facility” with the intent to incite or threaten violence against the identified individual.
Too often, patients, employees, and supporters of abortion clinics become the target of violence. Assembly Member Evans commented on the necessity of the bill, saying, “Women should never face vigilante justice for exercising their reproductive rightsÉ The same goes for those who work to enable women to exercise those rights,” CBS reports.
Other bills relating to women’s health signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger included a law to protect a women’s right to timely access of prescription drugs, regardless of a pharmacist’s ethical concern; a law to mandate health care coverage for the HPV test; and a law to raise standards for hospitals that collect breast milk from mothers for their own children, CBS reports.
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