Abortions Dropped 30% in One Month in AZ

The number of abortions performed in Arizona dropped by about a third in September after new state laws tightened restrictions and requirements.

The new restrictions and requirements took effect in August and September, and preliminary state figures indicate 729 abortions were performed in September. That’s down nearly 31 percent from September 2010, down nearly 32 percent from August 2011 and down 39 percent from the previous 12-month average of just over 1,200.

Planned Parenthood Arizona CEO Bryan Howard said availability of abortion services is reduced mainly because of a new law requiring all abortion facilities to have physicians involved in medication abortions previously performed only by physicians assistants. A separate law also prohibited nurse practitioners from performing surgical abortions.

Planned Parenthood Arizona since August has dropped abortion services at seven of its 10 locations statewide, including all three clinics in cities outside the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

Abortion opponent Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy hailed the reduction as “simply incredible.”

Herrod’s group lobbied for passage of the laws, which include a 2009 clinic regulation law and a 2001 law that expanded on the 2009 measure. Its implementation was delayed until a state appeals court upheld its constitutionality in August.

Herrod acknowledged that Planned Parenthood’s scaling back of its operations “would certainly have an impact” but she also said new so-called “informed consent” provisions requiring physicians to tell women about risks and alternatives also are having an impact.