PHOENIX โ State lawmakers are moving to alter two controversial abortion laws.
Members of a House-Senate conference committee voted Wednesday to repeal a bill signed into law last month by Gov. Doug Ducey that made it illegal for doctors to use RU-486 to induce an abortion beyond the seventh week of pregnancy.
Lawmakers also agreed to rescind a requirement that doctors tell women considering a medication abortion that the procedure may be reversible.
A federal court already has blocked the state from enforcing that 2015 law, which was challenged by Planned Parenthood as โjunk science.โ But the action by lawmakers does not repeal the law.
Instead, it requires a doctor to tell a woman who has taken the first of two pills designed to terminate a pregnancy that the single pill does not necessarily result in an abortion. That, in turn, could encourage women who might have second thoughts to seek out a small group of physicians who contend the abortion might be halted with large doses of the hormone progesterone.
Bryan Howard, president of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said the move to repeal the laws is โa victory for womenโs health.โ
But he said the new language of what women have to be told about medication abortions is no better than the law the federal court has enjoined. He said, though, no decision has been made whether to challenge that if it becomes law.
At the heart of both issues are efforts to limit medication abortions.
In the first case, Arizona doctors have routinely used mifepristone, known as RU-486, through the ninth week of pregnancy despite FDA labeling as safe through the seventh week.
There is nothing illegal about such practices. And gynecologists said they have found the drug to be safe and effective through nine weeks, and at a lower dosage than the FDA labeling.
A 2012 law required Arizona doctors to follow the FDA label, with offenders facing possible loss of medical practice. That law was overturned last year by a state judge who said legislators could not simply defer to whatever the FDA wanted.
So last month lawmakers voted to limit use to what was the FDA standard as of the end of last year, meaning seven weeks.
But days later the FDA approved the 10-week standard and lower dosage. Ducey signed the seven-week measure anyway, but acknowledged changes might be necessary.
Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, said she believes the new FDA standard is unsafe.
But she said time has run out to craft a law that would not result in a new lawsuit. So doctors are free to use the drug through 10 weeks in Arizona, at least for the time being.
The more complex issue surrounds the 2015 law that requires doctors to inform women at least 24 hours before the procedure that โit may be possible to reverse the effects of a medication abortion if the woman changes her mind but that time is of the essence.โ
Doctors who do not comply face suspension or revocation of license; clinics found in violation can be closed.
That law also requires the Department of Health Services to provide a list of doctors who are willing to try to stop the procedure after the first pill, RU-486, was taken.
The new version, approved Wednesday, eliminates the pre-abortion advisory but instead requires doctors to tell women who have taken that first pill but have questions that RU-486, by itself, does not always result in an abortion.
Howard said thatโs true, but added that itโs misleading.
In most cases, he said, mifepristone kills the fetus. The second pill, misoprostol, simply begins the contractions to expel it from the uterus.
Howard said the new version could create a situation where a woman who has taken only the first pill might be misled into believing the procedure is halted, unaware of medical complications that could result from failing to expel what could be a dead fetus from the womb.
Herrod, however, said the new proposal simply reflects reality.
โPlanned Parenthood has acknowledged that mifepristone, the first pill, is not always effective,โ she said. Herrod said this new language simply tells doctors what they have to tell a woman who goes back to the clinic with questions before taking the second pill.
Howard said lawmakers should stop trying to โmicromanageโ what doctors have to tell patients.
