AZ ruling upholds legislation closing Flag abortion clinic

[The Straight Story]

AZ ruling upholds legislation closing Flag abortion clinic

Due to the Abortion Consent Act (AZ State House Bill 2564) taking effect, the Flagstaff Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers in Arizona have changed how they can offer care to their patients.

HB 2564, which has been under an injunction since 2009, allows medical personnel to refrain from taking part in abortions on moral or religious grounds. It also requires that a medical doctor perform all surgical abortions and that minors get notarized parental consent for abortions. There is also a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and information must be delivered in person.

Bryan Howard, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said the ruling being overturned had an immediate result in reducing available care for patients.

“One of the impacts of the ruling was the prohibition of nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants from providing abortion care,” Howard said. “At least at Planned Parenthood, about half of the abortion patients we were seeing were being seen by nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants. As of Sept. 12, they are no longer allowed to provide that care despite having done so for literally a decade with a safety record equal to that of a physician’s. Overnight, what we saw was a shortage of providers. There are simply not the appointments available for women seeking the care.”

http://northernarizonanews.com/blog/2011/10/27/az-ruling-upholds-legislation-closing-flag-abortion-clinic/