The Republican controlled Arizona Senate just passed a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks, with the bill making it a felony for doctors to violate the potential law:
DC EXAMINER – Republicans in the Arizona Senate have passed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The bill, SB 1164, passed through the state Senate in a 16-13-1 vote Tuesday, with all Republican members voting to approve the bill that bans physicians from performing abortions after 15 weeks while providing some exceptions for medical emergencies.
Under the bill, if a physician knowingly violates the ban, they could face felony charges and a civil penalty fine of up to $10,000.
Circumstances that qualify as a medical emergency are defined as a situation that “complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” The bill does not specify exemptions in cases of rape or incest.
“We know from looking inside the womb, technology has given us a great gift to see what we all know instinctively and that is life begins at conception and as it grows you see more and more of the humanity of the unborn child,” State Sen. Nancy Barto said discussing the bill, as reported by FOX 10 Phoenix.
From everything I’ve seen, the Republican controlled House will likely also pass the bill and then it would go to Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk to be signed.
The New York Post says this bill is very much like the law passed in Mississippi, which is being considered at the Supreme Court right now. If the Supreme Court upholds that law it would be a landmark decision and, undoubtedly, it should apply to Arizona as well.