CGS-authored

Untitled Document

Assembly Bill 2531 is working its way through the Legislature and would expand the market in women’s egg donations and would allow researchers to provide financial incentive payments to women providing eggs for research. The bill would overturn California safeguards for women who undergo a serious medical procedure for egg extraction by repealing a law I wrote in 2006.

As a former state senator, I chaired the Senate Health Committee and authored laws that promoted biomedical, stem cell and cancer research while ensuring that women’s health was not compromised in the process.

Legislators may mistakenly assume that AB 2531 has universal support of women’s health advocates. They would be wrong.

A number of state and national women’s health and reproductive justice organizations, and other public interest groups, are opposing AB 2531 based on well-established concerns in the bioethics and reproductive health communities. The range of opposition includes the Alliance for Humane Biotechnology, Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Breast Cancer Action, and Center for Genetics and Society, Forward Together, Friends of the Earth, National Women’s Health...