HOUSE APPROVES ABORTION BILL

PHOENIX, March 24 – After retaining the legislation twice on the House committee of the whole (COW) calendar last week, yesterday the House approved Sen. Nancy Barto’s S1318 (abortion; health care exchange; licensure) on a 33-24 vote. The original bill would have prohibited any health care plan offered in the state through a health care exchange from providing coverage for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest. But a committee amendment pushed by Center for Arizona Policy and adopted in fed-state added a requirement that physicians performing a medication abortion inform a patient that it may be possible to reverse its effects, something critics said is not medically accurate or even tested. The bill now heads to the Senate, where sources say that the committee amendment could cause problems.