Arizona Bill Regarding Born-Alive Reporting (SB 1367)

SB 1367 would amend current reporting requirements for hospitals or facilities that provide abortions, while requiring physicians to certify certain information under penalty of perjury.

The bill would require facilities to provide the following additional information when reporting on abortions:

• Whether a fetus or embryo was delivered alive during or immediately after an attempted abortion and the efforts made to promote, preserve and maintain the life of the fetus or embryo;
• Statements by the physician and all staff present during the abortion certifying under penalty of perjury that the aborted fetus or embryo was not delivered alive.

Current law requires the department of health to collect all abortion reports and complication reports and prepare a comprehensive annual statistical report based on the data gathered in the reports. This bill would require the department to include a breakdown of the number of abortions by gestational age of the “unborn child” at the time of the abortion and the type of procedure performed or prescribed.

Duty to Promote Fetus or Embryo Delivered Alive

If a human fetus or embryo is delivered alive, the physician would be required to document and report to the department the measures the physician performed to maintain the life of the fetus or embryo.

An action to enforce this provision would be brought by the attorney general in the superior court in the county in which the violation occurred.

The bill defines “delivered alive” to mean:

“[…]the complete expulsion or extraction from a mother of a fetus or embryo, regardless of the state of gestational development, who, after expulsion or extraction, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached, shows any evidence of life, including one or more of the following:

• breathing;
• a heartbeat; 
• umbilical cord pulsation;
• definite movement of voluntary muscles.”

TRAP

The bill would also require additional rules to be adopted for abortion clinics.

Clinics performing or inducing an abortion for a patient whose fetus is the gestational age of twenty weeks or more would need to meet minimum equipment standards.

Rules would also need to require standards of care to satisfy the requirement that all available means and medical skills be used to promote, preserve and maintain the life of a fetus or embryo.

Related Legislation

The born-alive language is similar to model legislation drafted by Americans United for Life (AUL).

STATUS

Passed the senate on February 22, 2017, by a 18-12 vote.

Passed the house on March 29, 2017, by a 34-22 vote.

Passed the senate final reading on March 29, 2017, by a 18-11 vote.

Signed by Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on March 31, 2017.

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People

Organizations

• Americans United for Life — Drafted Model Law