Arizona Nursing Board Approves Recommendation Allowing Nurses To Perform First-Trimester Abortions

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 19 May 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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The Arizona Board of Nursing on Wednesday voted to approve a recommendation from the board's Advance Practice Committee that nurse practitioners with special training be permitted to perform certain abortion procedures, Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Star reports.

The board approved the recommendation with one dissent. Under the decision, nurses in the state can perform "aspiration" abortions, in which the fetus is vacuumed out of the uterus, up to the 13th week of pregnancy. Nurses will not be permitted to perform any abortions after 13 weeks' gestation, the board said (Fischer, Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Star, 5/15). Although state law regulates nursing, there previously were no rules specifically addressing which types of practitioners can perform abortions.

In June 2007, the nursing board received a complaint against Mary Andrews, a nurse practitioner with Planned Parenthood Arizona (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/12). According to Capitol Media Services/Daily Star, Andrews has been performing aspiration abortions through 16 weeks' gestation since 2001. The board on Wednesday decided it will not penalize Andrews since it did not previously have a rule on when nurse practitioners could legally perform abortions. Andrews said she stopped performing second-trimester abortions in March and would comply with the nursing board's decision and not perform them in the future.

However, the board's decision does "not end the dispute," Capitol Media Services/Daily Star reports. The Arizona House recently passed a bill (HB 2269) that would prohibit all nurses from performing surgical abortions. If the bill passes the Senate and is signed into law by Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), it would override the board's decision. It is unclear whether Napolitano, who recently vetoed two antiabortion measures, would sign the measure, according to Capitol Media Services/Daily Star.

Carol Bafaloukos, a spokesperson for PPAZ, said nurse practitioners had been performing abortions for PPAZ because of a shortage of doctors. She added that some women seeking abortions after the 13th week of pregnancy might have to wait to receive the procedure. Deborah Sheasby, an attorney for the Center for Arizona Policy, criticized the decision. Sheasby said that even if HB 2269 does not become law, she believes existing laws prohibit nurse practitioners from performing abortions (Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Star, 5/15).

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