Great news.
Starting today and thanks to a Federal District Court seeing through a last ditch effort by Planned Parenthood to stop it, several common sense health and safety standards are now in effect that further protect women and preborn children from the dangerous and deadly practices of the abortion industry.
CAP President Cathi Herrod put it best: “When Planned Parenthood loses, women win.”
Sponsored by Senator Kimberly Yee and signed into law in 2012 as part of the Mother’s Health and Safety Act, these standards require that:
- The abortion pill must be dispensed in line with Federal Food and Drug Administration protocol, which requires the pill only be dispensed in the first seven weeks of a pregnancy. Currently, abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood ignore this protocol and distribute the abortion pill through nine weeks.
- Doctors who perform surgical abortions must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic.
- Any time an ambulance is needed at an abortion clinic, the incident must be reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
- Signs must be posted in abortion clinics informing women that it is illegal for anyone to coerce them into having an abortion.
Upheld yet again
The provision that Planned Parenthood has fought over and over again around the country is the requirement that medication abortion be administered according to the FDA protocol. Yesterday’s decision by Federal District Court Judge David Bury upholding this requirement continues the track record of courts around the country seeing through Planned Parenthood’s attempts to block these laws and upholding them as constitutional.
In 2012, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Ohio law that is very similar to Arizona’s, and just this last Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Texas’ nearly identical law. These appellate court victories bode very well for Arizona’s law should Planned Parenthood foolishly decide to appeal Judge Bury’s decision.
Scoreboard
While Planned Parenthood likes to tout the two recent court decisions striking down Arizona’s 20 week restriction on abortion and an attempt to cut off taxpayer subsidies to the abortion industry, the four new provisions that are in effect today bring the total to 29 provisions since 2009 that have not been overturned by the courts and are in full effect.
Judge Bury’s decision adds to the Abortion Consent Act being upheld in its entirety by the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2011 which Planned Parenthood also unsuccessfully challenged. The facts are most of the abortion related laws passed in Arizona over the last several years have not been overturned by the courts nor cost the state money.
That is a record of 29-2 for pro-lifers since 2009 alone in Arizona. This is the main reason our state has become a national leader in protecting preborn children and their mothers from the dangerous and deadly practices of the abortion industry.