Senators approve bill banning partial-birth abortions

PHOENIX - State senators gave their final approval Monday to a bill banning "partial-birth abortions'' in hopes the new version will gain gubernatorial approval. Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, said lawmakers fixed the two specific complaints that Gov. Janet Napolitano made two months ago when she vetoed the bill.

SB 1048 specifies that doctors who perform such late-term abortions can be imprisoned for no more than two years. The bill Napolitano rejected in April allowed for longer incarceration.

Both the old and new bill provide an exception to save the life of the mother.

But the Napolitano objected to the first measure because there was no opportunity for a doctor charged with breaking the law to get a formal opinion from a medical board that the procedure was necessary. SB 1048 includes the language the governor sought. Gubernatorial aides will not comment on whether this new version of the bill, which still needs final House approval, would meet with Napolitano's approval.

But the governor has given every indication that it will meet the same fate as the original.

In her first veto message, Napolitano said those two issues were not the sole reason for her rejection.

"Rather than introducing more criminal penalties into the relationship between a woman and her physician, let us focus our collective efforts to remedy the root issue of unwanted pregnancies by addressing such important topics as family planning and the prevention of sexual violence against women,'' the governor wrote to lawmakers.

No new funds have been added to any program since that date.

But Gray said the state already is spending about $23 million a year, mostly on programs dealing with either preventing domestic violence or providing shelter for victims.

Napolitano essentially has an unbroken record on the issue of abortion: She has not signed a single measure into law since taking office in January 2003 which would place any new restrictions on the ability of women to terminate a pregnancy.

Arizona lawmakers approved a ban on this specific procedure, which involves killing the fetus when it is partway out of the womb, in 1997. But a federal judge barred it from ever taking effect.

In 2003, however, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law against partial birth abortions. SB 1048 is designed to track that statute virtually word for word.

Backers of SB 1048 said Arizona needs its own law to give county attorneys the power to prosecute violators. Federal charges can be brought only by federal prosecutors who may have different priorities.

And Ron Johnson, who lobbies on behalf of the three Catholic bishops who preside over state faithful, said having a state statute ensures that prosecutors need not prove the abortion is in any way linked to interstate commerce.