State lawmakers launched a three-pronged attack on abortions and abortion providers Wednesday, banning fetal research, limiting medication abortions and cutting off the access of Planned Parenthood to payroll deduction donations by state employees.
The most far reaching of the measures approved by the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services bars not only most research on a fetus or embryo but makes it a crime to sell, transfer, give away or use any fetal tissue.
Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, said the legislation is in response to undercover videos that emerged last year that purport to show the trafficking of aborted fetuses and body parts.
"When the videos uncovering the trafficking of teeny aborted babies and their body parts were released to the nation, that revealed a side to the abortion industry that most Americans didn't know about," she said.
Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, said she too was shocked by the videos but not in the same way as Barto.
"This is not happening. The videos have been discredited by an independent forensic analysis that showed numerous inaccuracies and misleading claims, false claims, highly, highly edited videos," Hobbs said. And she said investigations of Planned Parenthood in several states have cleared the organization of any wrongdoing.
None of this affects Planned Parenthood Arizona which says it does not do fetal donations. But Hobbs said the ban on research is far-reaching and inappropriate, especially if the woman agrees to donate the fetus for important research.