HB 2564 also specifies what factors a judge may consider in determining if a minor is mature enough to have an abortion without parental consent.
The bill further provides conscience protections for health professionals, hospitals and pharmacists who refuse to perform or facilitate the procurement of abortions or “morning after pills.” Arizona law already protects doctors and hospital staffers from being forced to perform abortions, but the bill is reportedly aimed specifically at “emergency contraception.”
Ron Johnson, Executive Director for the Arizona Catholic Conference, told the East Valley Tribune that people who own private businesses should not be forced to do things they find morally objectionable.
"I know a pharmacist in Prescott who owns his own pharmacy," Johnson said, saying he won’t carry emergency contraception. “He'll shut down if you force him to carry it and there'll be even less access" to medications.
He argued that those who want such medications probably could order them by phone for overnight delivery or travel further to the next drug store.
A statement from Planned Parenthood Arizona President Bryan Howard argued that the measure “makes health care less accessible and more expensive.”
CNA spoke with Ron Johnson of the Arizona Catholic Conference in a Thursday phone call.
Johnson called the bill “the most significant piece of pro-life legislation we’ve done in Arizona.”
“All proposals have gone through in the past years only to have been vetoed by Gov. Napolitano,” he explained. “Because of those vetoes, we’re bringing them back.”
“It’s going to protect women by providing them informed consent before they acquire an abortion. It’s going to protect parents by requiring parental consent, and it will protect the civil rights of health care workers.”
Noting that abortion rights advocates endorse the “right to choose,” he told CNA “We think health care workers certainly have the right to choose not to participate in an abortion.”
(Story continues below)
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He said the Arizona Catholic Conference knows of a nurse who was “fired, basically removed, because she wouldn’t partake of abortion in one hospital.”
Medical students also need protection, he said.
“There was a big situation at our county hospital, which was sending residents to train at Planned Parenthood,” he remarked, saying that state law generally prohibits taxpayer dollars being used to perform abortions.
Though the hospital was a government- funded facility, the students “were learning how to do abortions at Planned Parenthood. By statute they weren’t supposed to be doing that.”
“There were some Catholic students who were really imperiled by that action, which forced them to violate their conscience.”
Johnson said there was “increasing pressure” not only in Arizona but across the U.S. to “take away rights of conscience and compel Catholic hospitals and others to partake of or refer for these activities.”