Arizona state lawmakers on Thursday pushed forward a measure that would curb abortion rights in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court allows them to. The new measure S.B. 1164 was approved following a 5 to 3 vote in the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would make abortion at 15 weeks a felony. Exceptions were made in cases of a "medical emergency."
According to the Arizona Capitol Times, S.B. 1164 was sponsored by Republican Sen. Nancy Barto of Phoenix and orders the imprisonment and loss of medical licenses of doctors who perform abortions beyond the 15th week of pregnancy. Women who seek the abortion procedure however will not be penalized.
Many of those who testified for S.B. 1164 made it clear that they opposed abortion at any stage of a pregnancy. However, Roe v. Wade made it legal to have an abortion across the U.S. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding on a case in which Mississippi lawmakers approved a 15-week ban on abortion. As per 12 News, the state of Arizona already has some of the U.S.' most restrictive abortion laws. It also has a measure that would automatically criminalize abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
Arizona's recently passed S.B. 1164 is described as a contingency plan that affirms the Mississippi law but upholds Roe v. Wade. It would also place a statute in the books that would immediately take effect. During the hearing, those who testified showed their support for the abortion ban, including American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists former president Dr. Allan Sawyer, who believes the new measure would reduce the risk of maternal trauma and hemorrhage.
"Obstetricians know that later-term abortions correlate with multiple risks to a woman's health," Dr. Sawyer said during his testimony.
Rachel Van Hosen, who works for Crisis Pregnancy Center in Phoenix and had a legal abortion herself as a minor, supported Dr. Sawyer's claims by saying, "Relationship failure, hemorrhaging, cervical or uterine damage, depression, anxiety, PTSD, suicidal thoughts, alcohol and drug use are all potential physical, psychological and emotional side effects of having an abortion."
Van Hosen added that she experienced all these side effects herself, lamenting that "none of which were told to me." FOX 10 reported that Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod also threw her weight behind the anti-abortion bill, saying, "1164 seeks to protect both the life and the unborn child and the mother. Life is a human right. Abortion is not healthcare."
Herrod argued that abortion was merely "moved from the back alley to inside the abortion clinic" in the last 49 years since Roe v. Wade. Sen. Barto backed this, saying that there is simply no "safe option" for abortion. The Republican leader argued that they must "give voice to the unborn, to the unprotected, to the child that has no voice, who wishes to be born and has no power in that equation to have that choice to be born."
