PHOENIX (AP) - The anti-abortion group behind legislation signed by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey that locks in outdated federal guidelines covering the most commonly used abortion drug is working on a revamped legislative proposal.
Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, said Friday the new legislation her group is crafting won’t embrace all of the new Food and Drug Administration guidelines for the drug known as RU-486. She specifically took exception with the new rules’ expansion of the drug’s use to the 10th week of pregnancy.
She said that’s beyond the nine weeks abortion providers use now and the seven weeks in the old protocol. The FDA updated its protocol on Wednesday, and Ducey announced he signed the legislation Thursday.
“As a pro-life organization we do not support a protocol that authorizes the abortion pill through 10 weeks of pregnancy,” Herrod said. “We think that poses a significant risk to the woman’s health, so we won’t be supporting the protocol as it was announced this week.”
The legislation Ducey signed was designed to replace a 2012 law deemed unconstitutional by a state judge because it referred to FDA guidelines that might change. The state appealed that decision Friday.
The new bill locked in the guidelines as of Dec. 31.
A federal appeals court order blocking the 2012 law remains in force, and the new bill was intended to end the state case and allow that case to go forward. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in 2014 that that patients would likely suffer ’irreparable harm” if it were allowed to take effect.
Both bills bar doctors from prescribing the RU-486, formally called Mifeprex, after seven weeks of pregnancy and require the medication to be taken only at Food and Drug Administration-approved doses in effect until this week. It also requires the two doses of the drug to be taken at a clinic, while providers now send the patient home with the second pill to be taken days after the first.
Much lower doses have been commonly used for years, and at up to nine weeks’ pregnancy.
The FDA adopted those medical protocols on Wednesday, updating the drug’s label, and boosted the time it can be taken to 10 weeks’ pregnancy.
Ducey acknowledged in a signing letter issued Thursday that new legislation would likely be needed but that he signed the bill because anti-abortion lawmakers enacted it in good faith.
“I recognize that given the unexpected action by the FDA, some changes may need to be made in a later bill, and I stand ready to consider those changes when they reach my desk,” Ducey’s letter said. The Republican governor is strongly against abortion, and he signed two other bills targeting providers this week.
Since the 9th Circuit blocked the 2012 law, an attorney for abortion providers that brought that case said any new law might also face issues with that court.
“It’s always problematic when politicians restrict women’s abortion rights unconstitutionally,” David Brown of the Center for Reproductive Rights said Friday. “And certainly preventing (doctors) from practicing medicine according to their best medical judgment and requiring them to adhere to medically unsupported practices in an undue burden on women and women’s Constitutional rights.”
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