Arizona Abortion Bill: Senate Reportedly Passes Late-Term Termination Ban

PHOENIX, March 27 (Reuters) - The Arizona state Senate on Tuesday voted to ban most abortions performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy, according to news reports.

The bill was passed by a mostly party-line 20-to-10 vote in the Republican-dominated Senate, Capitol Media Services reported.

Only one Republican joined the body's nine Democrats to oppose the measure, which now goes to Arizona's House of Representatives for consideration.

The bill marks the latest salvo in the long-running national battle over late-term abortions.

Six states in the past two years have enacted late-term abortion bans based on controversial medical research suggesting a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation.

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortions nationwide in 1973 but allowed states to ban the procedure, unless it risked the woman's health, after the time when the fetus could potentially survive outside the womb. (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Steve Gorman)

Comments

[womensrights29]

09:55 PM on 05/24/2012

I am a women, and a feminist, and obviously support women's rights. But my question is what about the baby's right to life? I think that there should be more support for women who feel they have no choice but to terminate a pregnancy. Social supports, education, financial support. Whatever she needs to feel that she can handle raising a child. Honestly I just don't get abortion. I am a mother, and my instinct is to protect my child, and sacrifice for them....not to terminate there lives. I had to get ready to be a mother, and even though you're never really ready, and it's the hardest thing I ever done, I've never regretted it for a moment. And I know of women who have regretted their abortions.

[puffingsomehost]

05:20 PM on 04/04/2012

This is the link for my previous post:

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/02/456359/georgia-state-rep-votes-against-radical-anti-abortion-measure-citing-daughters-experiences/

[puffingsomehost]

05:16 PM on 04/04/2012

Consider this:

"Recently, the Georgia House considered a bill which would have prevented women from obtaining an abortion after 20 weeks, down from 26. Rep. Ron Stephens (R), who considers himself pro-life, originally voted against the bill, along with 16 other Republicans. In an interview with the Savannah Morning News, Stephens recalled his daughter Ashlin’s pregnancy just a few years before, when her child was diagnosed with trisomy, a devastating genetic defect, and how this bill would have affected his family’s decision:
“At five months, they told her part of her baby’s brain was outside the skull and the heart was inverted,” he said. “They said it would take only one or two breaths. She would have watched it die.” She discussed the option to terminate her pregnancy with her family. But she didn’t have to make the call, since she had a miscarriage shortly thereafter.
When the bill initially came to a vote in the House, there was no opportunity to amend it to provide exceptions for such situations. Stephens said he was so upset he felt sick and walked off the floor during the roll call.
“For something this cruel to happen to my daughter, or anyone’s daughter,” he said, “is just plain inhumane. I consider myself pro-life, but this provision was a distortion of pro-life values.”
Subsequently, the bill was amended to exempt “medically futile” pregnancies like his daughter’s, Stephens voted for the bill, which passed.

[Zippy1169]

09:51 PM on 03/28/2012

Once again Women if you needed yet another reason to vote all GOP out of office you just got it. The GOP will not learn until they are severely punished for their forced false superior morality.

[DevonTexas]

09:56 AM on 03/28/2012

so now they are redefining "late-term". How about two weeks? Or two minutes?

[synergie]

04:06 PM on 03/28/2012

I don't think they're re-defining things, they honestly just don't know what words actually mean. I think you must pass a basic competency exam to be able to serve. This is just getting ridiculous.

[corrai]

08:27 AM on 03/28/2012

Late term abortions need to be decided by the woman, her family and her doctor. I agree that if the fetus is healthy, she should not be allowed an abortion. But if medical risks to the woman, or if the fetus is not healthy, then the decisions is the woman's, her family and doctor's alone. The Conservatives in the GOP feels they can foist their religious beliefs on the rest of us and the health concerns of the woman. or the fetus be damned!

[Suresp77]

09:15 AM on 03/28/2012

fetus is healthy? As in healthy but has downs syndrome? healthy but has some other deformity or abnormality? The mother has a basic right to choose, and she does not find this out until the 20 week mark anyway. After that with further testing, specialists, she's easily at the 23-24 week mark. This is an arbitrary distinction just being used to curb a woman's right to choose: period!

[synergie]

04:07 PM on 03/28/2012

20 weeks is not late term. This "pain" nonsense is not based on sound science, it's based on political ideology.

[Elbrando]

08:25 AM on 03/28/2012

Its about time the law took control over healthcare. We definitely need the government between a women and her doctor.

[synergie]

04:08 PM on 03/28/2012

By law, you of course mean religious law right?

[giftsthatpurr]

09:25 PM on 03/28/2012

you need the government between a woman and her doctor?

[synergie]

10:54 PM on 03/28/2012

How ever else can we have small government that doesn't tell us what to do?

[Countess]

08:22 AM on 03/28/2012

It is time the women of America seriously consider a campaign of refusing to cooperate with these women-hating mullahs at every level including the bedroom.

[Marcin A Mazurek]

08:17 AM on 03/28/2012

Have late term abortions been like a problem?
I mean you're way past the point of having known, and probably decided whether you want the child at that point.

Not necessarily a stupid law - but how do they define "abortion" in the bill - because they might have accidentally made C-sections or premature birth assistance illegal.

[Suresp77]

09:17 AM on 03/28/2012

at that point an abortion is usually if there is something wrong with the development of the child or a serious threat to the mother's health. downs, encephalitis and so many others are detected only at the 20 week ultrasound and testing.

[synergie]

04:11 PM on 03/28/2012

First of all 20 weeks is NOT late term, and there are extenuating circumstances. Rape/incest victims, women who don't realize they are pregnant (it happens) etc. This is also about the time that amniocentesis is done and testing is done on the fetus to determine its health and development, and when problems are first recognized. So, no, you're not way past any point of knowing, and the decisions are just starting to happen in quite a few cases.

It's a fairly stupid law and one that is not based on science, and that runs contrary to the medical opinion, which pretty much certifies its stupidity.

[Marcin A Mazurek]

04:57 PM on 03/28/2012

Ok, but relative to the "Every Sperm is Sacred" laws this is definitely. on a relative scale, not quite dumbing it up.

I can't use ignorance as a shield, but I honestly don't know the full details so I can only ask forgiveness.

[momof5boys]

07:50 PM on 04/11/2012

The fact that something "happens" does not make it any less stupid. For a woman to have no idea she is pregnant for 20 weeks (that's 4.5 months after conception) is absurd! Yes, I've heard "it happens" but I don't believe it. That's called denial. You don't want to be pregnant so you pretend it's not happening. (Either that or total lack of education regarding one's own body.)

Over the last 10 years or less, 1st trimester screening has become the norm which includes maternal blood test and fetal nuchal translucency ultrasound.
85% accuracy. 5% false positive.
If 'positive' further testing can be done
--chorionic villi sampling - 10-12 weeks
--amniocentesis - 14-16 weeks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorionic_villus_sampling

So if you are even remotely considering abortion or think that your baby has a defect that you would choose to abort (quite sad in my opinion) you should very well know long before 20 weeks! In my educated opionion as a NICU nurse 20 weeks is late term since viability is 24-26 weeks! That means that a baby is being aborted that could survive on it's own in less than 2 months time. A full-term baby is 40 weeks and the "old" abortion limit was 26 weeks (which is the end of the 2nd trimester).

[liberalking37]

08:09 AM on 03/28/2012

New rule;if you can't have an abortion,you can'tmake laes about abortion.

[regulargal]

08:02 AM on 03/28/2012

I'm pretty liberal and very pro choice, up to about 12-14 weeks. After that, not so much unless the woman's health is of concern, or the fetus is non-viable. I'm surprised it has taken this long for states to enact a "late term" ban, and I'm surprised the ceiling is 20 weeks.

[synergie]

04:14 PM on 03/28/2012

The point of viability is 24 weeks. 20 weeks is not by any means "late term". Abortions that are done later in the term are done for reasons that are not frivolous, and that don't need political dictates. These are medical decisions and thus should be left up to the medical community. The ceiling federally is 24 weeks, pain is theorized to become a possible for a fetus somewhere after 30 weeks.

[regulargal]

06:05 PM on 03/28/2012

I think that if there is one good issue with which to compromise on, it's this one. I'd like to see conservatives compromise with 20 or even 14 weeks, and then leave the issue alone for once and for all. But that's equivalent to a snowball's chance in a bon fire.

[7dr361]

07:39 AM on 03/28/2012

As a liberal and lived in Arizona 23 years I am against abortion unless it is to preserve the mothers health or rape happened...

[kathy smelser]

08:10 AM on 03/28/2012

by the time you are 5mo. preg. if you were going to terminate the pregnancy you would have already done so

[synergie]

04:16 PM on 03/28/2012

That's not true. Many women are not aware of their pregnancies due to a number of factors. Comments like this are not helpful since they are so ignorant of the facts.

[momof5boys]

08:06 PM on 04/11/2012

Agree!

[Suresp77]

09:19 AM on 03/28/2012

no, you find out at that time if your child has special needs or might be disabled- and whether you like it or not, the parents get to decide if they want to commit to a lifetime of care for a child who may never enjoy a normal, independent life.

[skippy42]

07:33 AM on 03/28/2012

I can't imagine being four months pregnant and going to get an abortion. Makes me shudder.

[synergie]

04:18 PM on 03/28/2012

Can you imagine finding out that you're pregnant and that your months along and deciding you wish to terminate the pregnancy but are forced to continue anyway by the very same people who also wish to make sure you have no aid (medical, financial, food etc.) to carry on your pregnancy etc.

That is what should make you shudder, the fact that someone who has no idea what you situation is, can't imagine it, doesn't care and still dictates to you what you must do with your body.

[kaykaythere]

06:59 PM on 03/28/2012

I shudder at the thought of you trying to tell a woman carrying a fetus that could cause her death if the pregnancy continued that she has to die for your principles.

[skippy42]

07:48 PM on 03/28/2012

Elective abortions are one thing...
your reference denotes an altogether situation....
I do shudder when a woman elects a late term abortion merely because of her preference, she isn't the one dying.

[RyaPdc]

07:21 AM on 03/28/2012

Good for Arizona. Late term abortions are perhaps the most disgusting and barbaric thing a person can do, and it is nothing short of legalized m urde r. I am shocked at how many people think it is morally acceptable to split open a live baby's skull and suck his or her brains out.

[kathy smelser]

08:12 AM on 03/28/2012

it would be interesting to know how many abortions are being performed on woman who are 5m. preg

[synergie]

04:24 PM on 03/28/2012

Very few. Perhaps you should educate yourself on the statistics, and the reasons why women have abortions past 20 weeks, perhaps that might mitigate your "shock" and judgment. Knowledge has a way of doing that.

[kaykaythere]

07:00 PM on 03/28/2012

less than 1 %. The vast majority of them to save a woman's life. Ask Rick Santorum.

[synergie]

04:23 PM on 03/28/2012

You have no idea what you're talking about, and I'm willing to bet that you think it's morally acceptable to use a drone to bomb a live baby suckling at its mother's breast.

A fetus is not a baby. The procedure you describe is what doctors do for actual late term procedures in which the fetus has no chance at life, or is already dead, and the skull must be collapsed to get the fetus out of the mother in an emergent situation to save her life.

So what you're saying is that it is "disgusting and barbaric" to try to minimize the loss of life or damage to a woman in an emergency situation.

I'm shocked at how many people think it's morally acceptable to make such silly comments when they know absolute squat about what they're talking about. What you're advocating is legalized murder, only a person can be murdered and being pregnant doesn't make a woman any less a person.

[Michaela19801]

06:32 AM on 03/28/2012

Survive outside the womb at 20 weeks is about a million dollars in medical expenses.

And who will pay this ?

[rezdawg1]

07:53 AM on 03/28/2012

Oh ok. Dad it costs too much to put you in the nursing home. Who is going to pay this? Oh yeah, I'll just take you out back and put you down.

[Michaela19801]

09:19 AM on 03/28/2012

Let me guess. You're a right wing red state Christian. Didn't answer the question.

No need to reply I won't read it .

[thefeargame]

10:50 AM on 03/28/2012

Frankily, and totally off subject, if old folks (most t-baggers) have not PLANNED for their nursing home care they should be put on the street...fair is fair...why should my parents costs increase because some dead beat can't pay!

[kathy smelser]

08:14 AM on 03/28/2012

according to the Republican candidates it is going to be the church and community based programs ...

[giftsthatpurr]

09:32 PM on 03/28/2012

Then why do we have homelessness and poverty now? Why do so many go to sleep hungry?