California adds notice controls for records involving protected health care
Oct 11, 2026 edition · GC-2026-0125 · Published 2026-10-11 · Version 3 · Final
AB 1930 adds Attorney General notice and waiting-period requirements for covered legal-process requests concerning legally protected abortion or gender-affirming care. The September 26 law includes request-specific exceptions and an accommodation for shorter federal response obligations; it is not a blanket prohibition on producing all responsive records.
What happened
California enacted AB 1930 on September 26 as Chapter 468. A person or entity located, headquartered, incorporated, or otherwise doing business in California that receives the covered legal-process request generally must notify the Attorney General at least seven business days before producing records. The request must concern a civil, criminal, regulatory, or legislative investigation of abortion or gender-affirming services that constitute legally protected health care activity. The notice includes a copy of the request, with permitted confidentiality redactions, and the corresponding waiting rule applies unless an exception or shorter federal obligation controls.
Exceptions include a competent court's order, a request from a California state or local agency, a qualifying attestation, and records in which the protected-care information is incidental to the investigation. Attestations can address the specified lawful-use, California-illegality, or professional-discipline grounds, and recipients may rely on their representations. If federal law or an identified federal obligation requires a shorter response, notice may be contemporaneous with production and the text addresses best efforts to meet that federal deadline. The Attorney General can intervene or seek enforcement, including penalties for false attestations; those mechanisms require request-specific review rather than assuming every disclosure is forbidden.
Scope and timing
- Authority status
- Final
- Applicability
- Directly applicable
- Audience
- Health systems, Provider networks
- Jurisdiction
- California
- Recorded date
- 2027-01-01
- Date type
- effective
Why it matters
Legal, privacy, health information management, and records teams need a shared process for recognizing requests tied to protected care before producing information.
Recommended action
Have Legal and Privacy map the enacted restrictions to subpoena, warrant, records-release, and escalation procedures before the law takes effect.
Sources
- AB 1930, bill historyOfficial · California Legislature · 2026-09-26 · Source review 2026-09-27
- AB1930 current official textOfficial · California Legislature · 2026-09-26 · Source review 2026-10-11
- California Constitution, Article IV section 8(c), official Assembly 2023–24 editionOfficial · California State Assembly · Source review 2026-10-14
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