Legislature passes additional restrictions on abortion 

Senators passed two measures June 23 that would put additional restrictions on abortions performed in Arizona and modify the definition of partial-birth abortion.

The bills already passed the House. The next step is to send them to the governor.

Women who seek an abortion would have to wait at least 24 hours between the time they speak to a doctor about terminating a pregnancy and the actual procedure, according to legislation passed by the Senate on June 23.

H2564 also require doctors who will perform the abortions to speak with their patients in person and provide information on the immediate and long-term risks associated with abortion, alternatives to the procedure and the “probable anatomical and physiological characteristics” of the unborn child.

In addition, doctors must inform each woman seeking an abortion that medical-assistance benefits may be available if she went through with the pregnancy, such as prenatal and neonatal care.

The bill advanced by a vote of 16 to 12, largely along party lines. Republicans supported the measure, but Sen. Carolyn Allen, a Republican from Scottsdale, joined the minority in opposing it.

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, vetoed similar legislation during her six years on the Ninth Floor. But the bill’s supporters are hoping Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who succeeded Napolitano early this year, will sign the measure.

Sen. Linda Lopez, the minority whip, called the bill an attack on women’s rights and their “moral decision-making authority.” She said the legislation assumes Arizona women are “incapable of making decisions about their reproductive health in conjunction with their physician and their family.”

The bill also assumes that the Legislature knows what is best for women who are making one of the most difficult decisions of their lives, she said.

“It puts this Legislature squarely between a woman and her physician, and between a woman and her family,” Lopez said. “This Legislature has no business in either place.”

Sen. Paula Aboud, a Democrat from Tucson, said the bill violates the equal-protection provision of the U.S. Constitution by “singling out abortion patients for special restrictions and requirements.”

But Sen. Linda Gray, a Republican from Glendale who has sponsored an identical measure in the Senate, said many medical procedures require informed consent. 

Sen. Chuck Gray, a Mesa Republican, said in his view, abortion is the ultimate case of domestic violence.

Senators also passed H2400, after a vote of 20-to-8. The bill would modify the definition of partial-birth abortion and specifies the term of imprisonment for someone who performs the procedure.

The House had passed the two bills in March. To fast-track their passage, senators substituted them for identical Senate bills.  

The Legislature had passed a law in 1997 prohibiting partial-birth abortion unless necessary to save the life of a mother. Violating the law was punishable as a Class 6 felony. The law also allowed for civil action by the father or maternal grandparents if the patient was a minor at the time of the abortion. A U.S. District Court struck down the act as unconstitutional that same year.

In 2003, Congress enacted its own a partial-birth abortion ban, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2007.

H2400 mirrors the federal law.

It specifies that a physician who violates the prohibition shall be fined or imprisoned for a maximum of two years.

It also modifies the definition of partial-birth abortion in more specific terms than what is now in state statute. As it stands now, partial-birth abortion is described as delivering “a living fetus before killing the fetus and completing the delivery.”

The new definition would define it as “deliberately and intentionally… deliver(ing) a living fetus until, in the case of a headfirst presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the naval is outside the body of the mother for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus.”

But Aboud said the bill sends the message that Arizona’s politicians — not doctors — know what is best for the health of a pregnant woman.

“This bill actually mirrors the federal law in effect, and it is an attempt by extremists to play politics with women’s health,” she added. 

“I strongly believe,” said Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Republican from Snowflake, “there is a correlation in our country between the violence that our country experiences every day out in the street, the domestic violence in our homes or child abuse — anything that happens in our country I believe goes back to the fact that we did not protect life in its most vulnerable and innocent stage.”