Emergency services and care.

Assembly Member Bonta's legislation expands California's definition of emergency medical services to include reproductive health services, including abortion, within the scope of care that health facilities must provide during medical emergencies. The amendment to Section 1317.1 of the Health and Safety Code requires health facilities to deliver these services when necessary to address emergency medical conditions, alongside existing requirements for medical screening, examination, evaluation, and treatment.

The bill maintains current provisions regarding psychiatric emergency services, facility capabilities, and consultation requirements while adding reproductive health services to the mandatory emergency care framework. Health care service plans must reimburse providers for these newly classified emergency services, though the legislation specifies that certain exclusions remain in place for Medi-Cal managed care contracts. The amendment preserves existing scope-of-practice limitations and ensures compliance with federal emergency medical treatment regulations.

As an urgency statute, the bill would take effect immediately upon enactment. While the expanded definition creates new obligations for health facilities and service plans, the legislation explicitly states that no state reimbursement to local agencies is required for implementation costs. The bill's findings cite California's constitutional protections for reproductive freedom as the basis for clarifying that emergency services include reproductive health care.