PHOENIX β State senators voted Wednesday to outlaw scientific research on aborted fetuses.
SB 1474 would bring to a halt virtually all work done in Arizona on tissue from fetuses that were the result of elective abortions. The only thing doctors and laboratories could do is test the tissue to diagnose the life or health of the mother or the fetus, or conduct pathological studies to find out if the fetus was diseased.
The measure, approved 18-11, also would make it a state crime not only to sell fetal tissue, something already illegal under federal law, but even to give it away or transfer it, something that is now permitted.
And Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, added last-minute language to ensure that state health officials could find out what happened to the tissue even if it infringes on physician-patient relations.
Separately, the Senate voted by the same margin to permanently disqualify any organization that offers elective abortion from being part of the State Employees Charitable Campaign, which allows state workers to have donations to groups deducted automatically from their paychecks.
βI believe that abortion kills unborn human beings,β Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said in support of SB 1485. And he said while these are employee donations, the system is administered with tax dollars.
βIf you want to support that, buy your own stamp,β he said.
Much of what is driving the debate on SB 1474 is the question of the relative merits of the research.
Planned Parenthood Arizona said it does not provide fetal tissue, though other affiliates nationally do. Donations generally come after a woman has given her consent. And clinics are allowed to charge for their costs.
βLegal fetal tissue research has profound potential to advance human health and prevent immeasurable suffering,β said Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix.
βFetal tissue research saves lives,β she continued. βThere is no substitute for fetal tissue research.β
Sen. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, disputed those claims.
βThe truth is, is that no one with Parkinsonβs or Alzheimerβs (diseases) has been cured from using aborted fetal tissue research,β she said.
βYet this is the kind of misleading information that Planned Parenthood has been giving women to convince them to sign off on this, on having their aborted babiesβ body parts trafficked in the name of research,β Lesko continued. She called fetal research βoutdated science.β
Wednesdayβs vote also reignited the debate over undercover videos released last year that purport to show Planned Parenthood officials β though none from Arizona β discussing the harvesting and sale of fetal tissues.
Hobbs said those videos had been discredited as being highly edited. And she said separate investigations showed Planned Parenthood had broken no laws.
βThere was no evidence of tampering,β countered Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, but simply that the videos were βscaled down.β
Both measures now go to the House.
