Abortion In Arizona

Abortion in Arizona is legal. 49% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. By 1950, abortion was a criminal offense in Arizona for women to solicit or have.  By 2007, the state required mandatory ultrasounds before women could have an abortion.  Abortion became illegal in Arizona in April 2012 after week 20. Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) existed by 2013. Republican Representative Michelle Udall in Arizona's House with 20 other co-sponsors to provide $2.5 million annually for a period of three years to anti-abortion women's reproductive clinics as part of efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

The total number of abortion clinics in Arizona have been declining for years, going from thirty-seven in 1982 to twenty-eight in 1992 to nine in 2014. In 2014, there were 12,914 abortions in the state.  The next year, there were 12,644 abortions. In 2010, there were fourteen publicly funded abortions in the state. Abortion and religion have intersected in the state, particularly in the case of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, R.S.M., a Sister of Mercy. The state also has an active abortion rights community, with women participating in #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.

Terminology

The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.

Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".

Context

Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having a fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link.  At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening. The study singled out Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kansas as being the most restrictive states that year, followed by Arkansas and Indiana for second in terms of abortion restrictions, and Florida, Arizona and Alabama in third for most restrictive state abortion requirements.

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health.  These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools. According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states have legislation seeking to protect a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States.

Poor women in the United States had problems paying for menstrual pads and tampons in 2018 and 2019. Almost two-thirds of American women could not pay for them. These were not available through the federal Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC). Lack of menstrual supplies has an economic impact on poor women.  A study in St. Louis found that 36% had to miss days of work because they lacked adequate menstrual hygiene supplies during their period.  This was on top of the fact that many had other menstrual issues including bleeding, cramps and other menstrual induced health issues. This state was one of a majority that taxed essential hygiene products like tampons and menstrual pads as of November 2018.

History

Legislative history

In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. By 1950, the state legislature would pass a law that stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it were guilty of a criminal offense.

As part of the statutes around abortion clinic regulations in Arizona and Florida that existed in 2007, there is a requirement that abortion providers show women ultrasounds of their fetus before they are allowed to have an abortion. Governor Jan Brewer signed into law in April 2012 abortion restrictions that prohibited the procedure after 20 weeks. In 2013, state Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to medication induced abortions and private doctor offices. In 2018, the state legislature passed a law that required the Arizona Health Department to apply for Title X funds as part of their attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Michelle Udall, Republican Representative who introduced HB 2759.

Arizona law requires that only medical doctors can perform abortions as of 2019.  Women have a mandated 24 hour waiting period after seeking an abortion and must undergo in person state mandated counseling. On January 1, 2019, a new law came into force in Arizona that required women to provide detailed medical information that was to be submitted to the state before they were allowed to have an abortion.  Among the information the new law required abortion providers to collect was whether the abortion was elective or therapeutic, the number of abortions they have had in the past and information on any medical complications they have as a result of the abortion.  This information is then collected by Department of Health Services who provide the state with an annual report on abortions in the state, along with information on the how abortions are paid for in the state. In 2019, women in Arizona were eligible for pregnancy related disability associated medical care that included abortion or miscarriage.

As of May 14, 2019, abortion was legally not allowed after the fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28. This period uses a standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling and not state law. On May 21, 2019, HB 2759 was introduced by Republican Representative Michelle Udall in Arizona's House with 20 other co-sponsors to provide $2.5 million annually for a period of three years to create a pilot program run by Texas anti-abortion organization Human Coalition with a purpose "to encourage healthy childbirth [and] support childbirth as an alternative to abortion." The proposed legislation also said funds for this program "may not be used for abortion referral services or distributed to entities that promote, refer or perform abortions."

Judicial history

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester. Despite the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturning Arizona's April 2012 abortion law in January 2015, the law banning abortion remains on the books.

In April 2019, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona.  They alleged that Arizona's laws made it so difficult for women to get abortions that it was almost impossible for them to legally get an abortion.

Clinic history

Number of abortion clinics in Arizona by year

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by 9, going from 37 in 1982 to 28 in 1992. In 2014, there were 9 abortion clinics in the state. 80% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 19% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. In 2019, 80% of counties in Arizona did not have a clinic that provided abortion services. This made it very difficult for most women in Arizona who wanted abortions to get one. In 2019, Northern Arizona was served by only one clinic that performed abortions, and that was a Planned Parenthood clinic which could only provide induced abortions using medication. In March 2016, there were 10 Planned Parenthood clinic in the state. In 2017, there were 10 Planned Parenthood clinics in a state with a population of 1,525,996 women aged 15 – 49 of which 4 offered abortion services.

Statistics

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero recorded illegal abortion deaths in the state. In 1990, 448,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2001, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin did not provide any residence related data regarding abortions performed in the state to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2014, 49% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 5.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Abortion financing

17 states including Arizona use their own funds to cover all or most "medically necessary" abortions sought by low-income women under Medicaid, 13 of which are required by State court orders to do so. In 2010, the state had fourteen publicly funded abortions, of which one was federally and thirteen were state funded. In March 2019, Arizona Family Health Partnership was the primary association to receive the state's Title X funds. Planned Parenthood received around 17% of these funds while serving around 53% of all Title IX recipients.

Intersections with religion

Sr. Margaret Mary McBride, R.S.M., is a Sister of Mercy. McBride was an administrator and member of the ethics committee at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, which is owned by Catholic Healthcare West (Dignity Health). On 27 November 2009, the committee was consulted on the case of a 27-year-old woman who was eleven weeks pregnant with her fifth child and suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Her doctors stated that the woman's chance of dying if the pregnancy was allowed to continue was "close to 100 percent". McBride joined the ethics committee in approving the decision to terminate the pregnancy through an induced abortion. The abortion took place and the mother survived.

Afterwards, the abortion came to the attention of Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. Olmsted spoke to McBride privately and she confirmed her participation in the procurement of the abortion. Olmsted informed her that in allowing the abortion, she had incurred a latae sententiae, or automatic, excommunication. McBride was subsequently reassigned from her post as vice president of mission integration at the hospital.

In December 2010, Olmsted announced that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix was severing its affiliation with the hospital, after months of discussion had failed to obtain from the hospital management a promise not to perform abortions in the future. "If we are presented with a situation in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's life, our first priority is to save both patients. If that is not possible, we will always save the life we can save, and that is what we did in this case," said hospital president Linda Hunt. "Morally, ethically, and legally, we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save."

Abortion rights views and activities

Phoenix Women's March in 2017.

Protests

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019. On May 21, 2019, large number of women protested abortion laws passed in other states outside the Arizona Capitol building.

Activists

Sherri Finkbine

One notable case dealt with a woman named Sherri Finkbine. Born in the area of Phoenix, Arizona, Sherri had 4 healthy children. However, during her pregnancy with her 5th child, she had found that the child might have severe deformities. Finkbine had been taking sleeping pills that contained a drug called Thalidomide which was also very popular in several countries. She had later learned that the drug was causing fetal deformities and she wanted to warn the general public. Finkbine strongly wanted an abortion, however the abortion laws of Arizona limited her decision. In Arizona, an abortion could only occur if the mother's life was in danger. She met with a reporter from The Arizona Republic and told her story. While Sherri Finkbine wanted to be kept anonymous, the reporter disregarded this idea. On August 18, 1962, Finkbine traveled to Sweden where she was able to obtain a legal abortion. It was also confirmed that the child would have been very much deformed.

Footnotes