Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signs controversial abortion bill

Gov. Doug Ducey has signed into law a bill regulating how doctors must care for a baby born alive during an abortion.

His office announced the action on Senate Bill 1367 without any comment. It was folded into a list of 12 other bills the governor acted on.

"It's a great day for babies in Arizona," said Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, which supported the bill. The conservative center has successfully convinced lawmakers to enact a number of abortion-related bills.

However, Herrod contended the bill is not about abortion, since if a baby survives an abortion, it is a living human being.

She thanked Ducey for his signature on what she called "significant legislation."

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, and passed with unanimous Republican support. Only one Democrat, Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix, voted for it.

Rep. Mitzi Epstein, who voted against the bill, said it takes decisions away from families and doctors.

"I believe that grieving families and doctors should make these decisions," she said in a statement. "Government does not belong there."

Debate over the abortion bill was emotional — both in the Legislature and among the public. Opponents, including most Democrats as well as obstetricians and gynecologists, said the bill would force doctors to perform pointless procedures during what could be an infant's final few minutes of life. Supporters say they believe it will assure all babies born get at least a chance at life.

Fetal anomalies included

​Due to Arizona's definition of abortion, the bill applies not only to what most consider a traditional elective-medication or surgical abortion, but also to any instance in which something is done to cause the early delivery of a baby when the baby is not expected to live.

This would include mothers who are induced early because of a fatal fetal anomaly or because something has gone wrong with the fetus or the pregnancy.

PREVIOUS: Legislature passes controversial abortion bill

Under current law, if a baby is "delivered alive" during an abortion, it is the duty of any doctors present to see that "all available means and medical skills are used to promote, preserve and maintain the life" of the baby. "Delivered alive" isn't currently defined in law, and medical experts have said that gives them flexibility to do everything possible to save the life of the fetus only if they believe it has a chance of surviving.

SB 1367 defines "delivered alive" as showing one or more of these signs of life: breathing, a heartbeat, umbilical cord pulsation or definite movement of voluntary muscles.

It requires the Arizona Department of Health Services to set policies that clinics, hospitals and physicians must follow to care for a baby delivered alive, including having neonatal emergency equipment and trained staff in the room for all abortions performed at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Beyond comfort care

Physicians say the new definition will require them to perform unnecessary procedures on a baby with no chance of survival instead of the current practice of providing "comfort care" to allow these babies to die in the arms of their parents.

RELATED: Moms who oppose abortion bill call it unethical, cruel

The bill does have some caveats for a fetus with a fatal fetal condition who is not expected to live longer than three months. While all life-saving efforts aren't required, the doctor must now examine the baby after birth and confirm the fatal condition, the doctor must tell the woman prior to the abortion that care must be provided to the fetus, the doctor must perform rapid neonatal resuscitation, and the doctor must confirm that additional treatment will only prolong the act of dying.

After all that is done, the doctor can move to comfort care.

Other bills: Voter records

Ducey also signed 11 other bills and issued his second veto of the session.

• House Bill 2412 sets vastly reduced fees for public access to Arizona's voter-registration database. Under the schedule set out in the bill, a database of 1 million records could be purchased for about $400, instead of the current fee of $100,000 for an electronic version or $500,000 for a paper version. Sponsored by Rep. Doug Coleman, R-Apache Junction, the bill was designed to help settle a lawsuit filed last year by Project Vote Smart, which has argued that the prices are exorbitant. It passed with unanimous support.
• Senate Bill 1109, from Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, requires fingerprint clearance for any contract employee who has access to the Department of Child Safety's database. It also won unanimous legislative approval.
• Ducey vetoed House Bill 2321, which sought to set limits on how members of homeowner association boards can cast their votes. The governor said it's none of the state's business to regulate such practices. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, and had unanimous support in the Legislature.

Reach the reporter at alia.rau@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @aliarau.