Dr. Tracy Weitz, the sociologist whose research provided the basis for California’s new law permitting non-physicians to perform first-trimester abortions, has left the state to join the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation in Omaha, NE as the director of its domestic philanthropy. Among other causes, the Buffett Foundation supports Planned Parenthood and has “long taken the foundation into the heart of the abortion battle.”
The California law, AB 154, allows trained non-physicians to perform abortions–not just through medication but also aspiration, a surgical procedure. One pro-choice doctor who opposed the bill said at the time that it “is a disaster since it sends us back 100 years to the problems of the complications from back-steet abortions.”
Supporters argue the bill will expand access to poor women. A handful of other states have similar laws.
Dr. Weitz was the lead author of a 2013 paper in the American Journal of Public Health that argued that non-physician abortions could be performed safely. She said at the time: “Increasing the types of health care professionals who can provide early aspiration abortion care is one way to reduce…health care disparity.”
Reached by Breitbart News on Monday, Dr. Weitz declined to say whether she would promote legislation similar to AB 154 in other states in her new capacity at the Buffett Foundation.
“The foundation does not specifically promote any laws. We also do not routinely discuss any of our funding priorities with members of the press,” she said.
The Buffett Foundation gives tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, which supported AB 154 vigorously, as well as other groups that work to expand access to abortion worldwide.
Photo: file