Arizona House Backs Three Major Pro-Life Bills, Including Ban on Sales of Aborted Baby Parts

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Mar 24, 2016   |   10:39AM   |   Phoenix, AZ

Three pro-life bills are on their way through the Arizona legislature and soon could be on Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk.

On Wednesday, the Arizona House gave preliminary approval to the bills, and a final vote is expected on Thursday, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The bills, already passed in the state Senate, would regulate the use of dangerous chemical abortion drugs, ban the trafficking of aborted babies’ body parts and remove abortion groups from the state employee charitable giving program.

Specifically, state Senate Bill 1324 would ban dangerous chemical abortions after the seventh week of pregnancy, as the drug label recommends. Abortion clinics often use the chemical abortion drug regimen RU-486 later in pregnancy and give smaller doses than recommended, likely in an effort to save money.

In a letter on its website, the pro-life Center for Arizona Policy encouraged people to contact their lawmakers with this message: “SB 1324 is a simple clarification of a law already vetted and passed by the legislature in 2012. Both the Fifth and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals have upheld similar laws. Abortion providers consistently show that they have more concern about their bottom line, than the health and safety of women and SB 1324 helps put an end to that.”

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RU-486 is responsible for the deaths of dozens of women worldwide, including several in the United States, and it has injured at least 1,100 women in the U.S. as of 2006 figures from the Food and Drug Administration. It also has claimed the lives of 2 million unborn children in the United States since its approval at the end of the Clinton administration.

The second bill, state Senate Bill 1474, would end the inhumane treatment of aborted babies’ bodies by abortion clinics and research facilities. Arizona state Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, introduced the bill earlier this year, saying she was “shocked” by the undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress showing top Planned Parenthood officials selling aborted babies’ body parts.

Arizona needs to end “this horrendous trafficking in body parts, baby fetal body parts,” Barto said.

Similar to bills introduced in other states, SB 1474 would make it a crime to knowingly “sell, transfer, distribute, give away, accept, use or attempt to use any human fetus or embryo or any part, organ or fluid of the human fetus or embryo resulting from an abortion.” The bill includes exceptions for pathological studies to determine the cause of death and diagnostic tests to preserve the life of the mother or the unborn baby.

The bill faced some opposition from Senate Democrats who said it was unnecessary because Planned Parenthood facilities in Arizona do not harvest fetal tissue for research.

However, Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, previously questioned why abortion supporters oppose the bill if the practice is not happening in the state, according to the AP.

“We watched in horror after videotape after videotape showed Planned Parenthood executives, discussing the sale of baby body parts, livers, tissues…brain,” Herrod said. “Planned Parenthood claims that they do not engage in these practices within Arizona. That means they should not have any issue with this bill.”

The final bill, Arizona Senate Bill 1485, would ban abortion groups from the state employee charitable giving program. The ban is a continuation of a move last year by Gov. Ducey to kick out Planned Parenthood from the program. In 2014, the abortion business’s Arizona affiliate received about $7,250 from state employees through the program, LifeNews reported.

“All of these measures help protect the dignity of preborn children and the health and safety of their mothers,” the pro-life Center for Arizona Policy said on its website.

State legislators in the Senate also are considering a separate bill that would make it easier to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

ACTION: Contact Arizona lawmakers here and ask them to support the bills.

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