Pro-life and pro-choice protesters gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 2, 2016, to demonstrate. The court that day heard oral arguments in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a case centering on restrictions placed on abortion clinics in Texas. /Photo by Jordan Uhl /Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
Bills modeled on the stricter Texas Heartbeat Act were sidelined in committee
By Gloria Gomez for Arizona Mirror
Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled legislature have made restricting abortion a priority this year, and are likely to emulate a Mississippi law that the U.S. Supreme Court is widely expected to uphold rather than a far more restrictive law in Texas.
Several legislative measures have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would make accessing abortion more difficult or criminalize abortion providers. Republican lawmakers in each chamber have sponsored copycat versions of the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a timeframe in which many women aren’t even aware they’re pregnant. Neither has been assigned to any committees, making it almost certain that they won’t advance in the legislature. Thursday was the deadline for legislative committees to hear bills in their chamber of origin.
Prospects are far better for Senate Bill 1164, which the Senate approved on a party-line vote on Tuesday. It criminalizes doctors performing abortions after 15 weeks unless there’s a medical emergency, and makes no exception for pregnancies from rape or incest. Sen. Nancy Barto, the bill’s sponsor, defended this by shifting attention to fetuses.
“The baby inside of a woman is a separate life and needs to be protected. All life is sacred,” said Barto, a Phoenix Republican.
