[NPInfo] NPs banned on performing abortions

[Erich Widemark]

Currently the legislation is still in process and the ban has not been decided.  This was the Senate Public Safety committee that voted in favor for this bill.  We have two hopes left.  One that the Senate will vote against it, and the other that the Governor will veto it.  Any help from the nation or locally will be much appreciated!

Erich in Phoenix

-----Original Message-----
From: npinfo-bounces at nurse.net [mailto:npinfo-bounces at nurse.net] On Behalf Of David Mittman
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 1:30 PM
To: ACC Circle Circle; NPinfo; PA Forum
Subject: [NPInfo] NPs banned on performing abortions

Whether you agree with abortion, the reason they used for the ban was  
BS and sounds the same as the one about PPAs doing "Invasive  
procedures" in NY.
Dave
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Published: 04.04.2008


Senate panel OKs ban on abortions by nurse practitioners

By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
PHOENIX � Calling it an issue of patient safety, a Senate panel  
voted Thursday to bar nurse practitioners from performing abortions.
The 4-2 vote came after Michael Urig, a Phoenix obstetrician and  
gynecologist, told members of the Committee on Public Safety and  
Human Services that he does not doubt they can do uncomplicated  
procedures.
He said, though, they are not in any way prepared for the kind of  
complications that can result from an "invasive surgical procedure."
That, he said, requires the kind of training that comes with a four- 
year surgical-residency program.
But Angela Golden, vice president of the Arizona Nurse Practitioner  
Council, said people with her kind of specialized training already do  
complicated procedures, including those that require a patient to be  
sedated.
"To suggest that nurse practitioners can't recognize complications is  
simply unfair," she said. And Golden, who works in Flagstaff, said  
any procedure performed in a clinic can result in complications. She  
told lawmakers that's when any medical practitioner � doctor, nurse  
or otherwise � gets a patient to a hospital.
But the debate in many ways transcends patient safety and spills over  
into the two perennial political fights.
One deals with how easy it should be to get an abortion in Arizona.  
Backers of the measure admit HB 2269 is aimed at Planned Parenthood  
� and, specifically, at the fact that more than half the abortions  
at the organization's Tucson clinic are performed by a nurse  
practitioner.
So far the state Board of Nursing, which generally decides what is  
the accepted scope of practice of regular and advanced-training  
nurses, has yet to rule whether abortions are within the skill set of  
all nurse practitioners or, at the very least, those with specialized  
training.
This measure, written with the help of the anti-abortion Center for  
Arizona Policy, takes the question out of the hands of the board.
Urig also admitted after the hearing that he not only does not  
perform abortions but is personally opposed to the practice.
Foes of the bill have said it will make abortions less available.
The other political issue involves the fights doctors have had at the  
Capitol with other medical specialists over who is qualified to  
perform certain procedures.
In previous years those fights have been with groups as diverse as  
optometrists and chiropractors. Karen Holder, a Flagstaff nurse  
practitioner, said efforts by doctors to get lawmakers to trim the  
powers of nurse practitioners "may open Pandora's box" and start a  
new turf war.
The measure, which already has been approved by the House, now goes  
to the full Senate.
Figures for 2006 from the state Department of Health Services show  
10,506 abortions were performed in the state. Of that total, 3,088  
were procedures that involve prescription drugs to induce abortion  
without surgery.


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