(CNSNews.com) - Legislation specifically designed to protect the "reproductive rights" of California women, regardless of changes in federal law, is just one signature away from becoming law in the Golden State.

Split along party lines, the California State Assembly Monday passed the Reproductive Privacy Act (SB 1301) by a vote of 44-23 and sent the pro-abortion legislation to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis for his signature.

"Yes, he's going to sign it," Davis' spokesman Russ Lopez told CNSNews.com. However, he did not indicate when the governor would formally do so.

Davis' 2002 campaign website already boasts that the incumbent governor "helped make California the most pro-choice State in the nation, signing into law seven pieces of legislation to strengthen a woman's right to choose."

According to Lopez, Davis has been supportive of this bill since its introduction into the State Assembly and he's been working closely with the bill's author, Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica).

Kuehl said the assembly's nearly 50 percent approval of the bill confirms Davis' notion that California is "taking the lead" on abortion issues nationwide.

Heralded by homosexual activists as California's first lesbian state senator, Kuehl believes her pro-abortion bill will protect Californians from an "anti-choice president, an anti-choice Congress and the Supreme Court," which she fears is one vote away from overturning Roe v. Wade.

Included within Kuehl's legislation is a provision that allows women greater access to the chemical abortion pill RU-486.

While state law currently mandates only doctors can dispense RU-486, the Reproductive Privacy Act would permit non-physicians including nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to administer the abortion pill.

According to an advocacy letter posted on the website of the California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (CARRAL), "The Reproductive Privacy Act would provide women with greater access to abortion services by allowing nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, physician assistants, and other qualified health care professionals to act within their existing scope of practice in relation to assisting with surgical abortions and dispensing mifepristone (formerly known as RU-486)."

Further, the CARRAL letter claims that Kuehl's bill "would ensure that California has a constitutionally firm abortion law that protects the reproductive rights of all Californians, now and in the future."

State Assemblyman Tim Leslie (R-Tahoe City) criticized Kuehl's legislation for neglecting to take into consideration the health and safety of "mothers" by allowing non-physicians to dispense RU-486.

"The bill's author, Sheila Kuehl, is running on another bill, SB 1345, that mandates only qualified vets or assistants can perform anesthetic type procedures on animals," Leslie said. "It is interesting to note that while Senator Kuehl is strengthening the protections of dogs and cats undergoing medical procedures, she is working to weaken the health standards for women having an abortion."

"All this is intended to do is sure-up and solidify permanently what is in place," said California Catholic Conference spokesman David Pollard. "The simple reality is that public policy has been established and is being carried forward."

The California Catholic Conference describes itself as the "official voice" of the Catholic community in California's public policy arena. The group notes that nearly 10 million Catholics make-up one-third of the state's entire population.

"Obviously, we're opposed to the whole concept of taking unborn life and everything that crystallizes that in our society," Pollard said. However, he said the Reproductive Privacy Act would make any attempt to reverse Roe v. Wade "that much more difficult to come by."

"Nothing's impossible," Pollard said regarding the possibility of overturning abortion law in California, "But it virtually is anyhow," he added.

"[Abortion] is just one of those elements of our society that we believe is causing damage to society," Pollard said. "The more irreversible it becomes, the more difficult it will be to control the damage that is happening."