Legislators in Phoenix passed a controversial bill prohibiting the purchase of abortion coverage through the federal healthcare exchange and requiring doctors to state that drug-induced abortions are “reversible.”
Senate Bill 1318, proposed by Republican lawmaker Nancy Barto,
passed the Arizona Senate on Wednesday after an 18-11 vote and is
awaiting signature by Governor Doug Ducey. If signed into law, it
would make it illegal to purchase any healthcare plan on the
federal healthcare market that includes abortion coverage.
Arizona already requires those who want abortion coverage to pay
for a separate insurance rider. The new bill would eliminate that
option. The latest federal statistics show that more than 200,000
Arizona residents have insurance plans through the federal
exchange, and 75 percent receive subsidies.
“This is a great day for women in Arizona who are considering
getting an abortion,” and a “great day for Arizona
taxpayers,” Cathi Herrod of the conservative Center for
Arizona Policy told Reuters.
A particularly controversial provision in the bill is the
requirement that doctors inform patients that a particular
abortion procedure is “reversible.” It was inserted by a House
committee member last month, after one doctor testified he had
successfully reversed a drug-induced abortion at 10 weeks, using
the female hormone progesterone. If a woman has taken the first
of the two drugs needed to complete the abortion procedure, but
not the second, he argued, progesterone could reverse the
procedure.
“It’s experimental. It’s untested, and if we don’t know it
works then why are we doing it?” Dr. Kathleen Morrell, an
abortion doctor and advocate at Physicians for Reproductive
Health, told AP. “We have piles of research behind what we’re
doing. They don’t have a pile,” she added, demanding
evidence for the claim.
“I think it’s medical malpractice, and I don’t think we
should be inserting that into state statute,” said Senate
Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, a Phoenix Democrat, who further
blasted the provision as “junk science” and “quack
medicine.”
READ MORE: Gender-selective abortion could become
criminal offence
Earlier this month, Dr. Eric Reuss of the Arizona section of the
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
blasted the bill as “legislative overreach.” Writing in
The Arizona Republic, Reuss argued that “there is absolutely no
evidence-based data” that the procedure could be reversed,
and that if passed, the law would “force physicians to impart
hearsay to their patients.”
Though the bill provides an exception for victims of rape or
incest, critics argue that forcing the women to disclose this to
their insurance providers is demeaning.
“That is a cruel joke,” argued Rep. Victoria Steele, a
Democrat from Tucson. “Imagine that someone, your daughter,
is pregnant as the result of a rape… they would need to talk to
their insurance company to prove they qualify for this exemption?
How humiliating, how traumatizing that is.”