Arizona Governor Signs HB 2416, Restricting Telemed Abortions

The state just keeps adding more restrictions to how and when abortions can be performed.

Arizona is once again making it more difficult for women in the state to obtain abortions, this time creating new rules on how the procedure would be performed.  With a focus on initiating new rules defining abortion that will force women to undergo mandatory ultrasounds prior to the procedure and eliminate the possibility of using telemedine to dispense RU-486, many women in rural areas will effectively be cut off from access to an easily obtainable abortion.

Via Press Release:

“Under the disguise of making a law that makes women safe, HB 2416 will actually be more dangerous for rural, low-income women, delaying care and making access difficult,” said Bryan Howard, CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona.  “Claiming to be more knowledgeable than trained medical professionals and their licensing boards, the legislature has once again put themselves between patients and their doctors.”

In order for this legislation to pass, anti-abortion interest groups provided testimony during the legislative process that distorted medical data and the directives of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which monitors and has certified the safety of the pill used in medication abortion. 

“Regardless of Arizonans’ views on abortion, all citizens should expect elected representatives to use accurate information as the basis for the laws that regulate access to safe medical care,” says Howard. “In HB 2416, both the anti-abortion legislators who voted for this legislation and the anti-abortion interest groups that provided them with talking points did all Arizonans a disservice by employing deceitful tactics to get this bill passed.”

Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill into law only a few days after signing a previous batch of anti-choice legislation that claimed to be necessary to stop gender and race based abortions in the state.