In 1974, a peculiar quid pro quo was struck. The football stadium at the University of Arizona needed to expand and renovate. Republican state legislature, Jim Skelly, saw an opening. He and his team of 14 House Republicans offered to pay for the expansion, under their circumstances. The cost to add 22,100 seats to the University of Arizona football stadium was going to cost the school $5.5 million dollars. So, they made an agreement with the legislature and his team, but the condition was the medical school will no longer educate or train it’s medical students about, nor conduct the procedure of, abortions in the university hospital.
To think that students who have graduated and become doctors from the University of Arizona, especially doctors who have a focus in gynecology or obstetrics and gynecology have no required training due to the curriculum is astonishing. This doesn’t sound efficacious.
The 1974 bill presented the University of Arizona with a decision: create a better facility that could generate more revenue or provide a safe and accessible facility that supports reproductive procedures.
Now, under Arizona Revised Statute 15-1630, abortions at educational facilities under the Arizona Board of Regents are prohibited, unless it is necessary to save the life of the mother or if the fetus is already dead.
This denies critical information and learning to students as well as creates a burden for women in the Tucson community; it leaves only three counties in Arizona with an abortion provider - Pima, Maricopa, and Coconino.
“I believe that it is important for physicians in training to have the necessary tools to treat all manner of pregnancy-related issues, sometimes including ones that unavoidably result in termination due to threat to the life/health of the mother. When the AZ legislature uses political gimmicks to endanger patients in this way, it bothers me greatly. I would prefer to keep the legislature out of the medical curricula of our universities and leave medial education of students and residents to the appropriate experts,” Matt Heinz former Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives, representing District 29, who served as State House Minority Whip and who ran as the 2016 democratic candidate to the U.S. House to represent the 2nd Congressional District of Arizona said.
Many students have been trying to get around the prohibition by joining clubs like Medical Students for Choice and others, who supply abortion information, but meet off campus due to the stadium law. If a medical student is interested and wishes to learn the procedure, they have limited information and assistance. In 2000, students were given the opportunity to attend a two-hour session, which focused on the psychological effect and complications of abortions. This is interesting because, based on the American Journal of Public Health, “abortions are one of the safest surgical procedures for women in the United States. Fewer than 0.05% of women obtaining abortions experience a complication.”
Since abortion is not a part of the medical school curriculum, it leaves the responsibility of learning the procedure up to the students. By not supplying the resources and expertise of the medical school, knowledge students could learn is limited; it also creates a burden of responsibility on clinics. Students on their own time and money are left with no choice but to go out of state or to a Planned Parenthood facility that provides the training. Found on the Planned Parenthood website is how they’ve handled this issue, “Planned Parenthood implemented a rotation for obstetrics and gynecology residents to receive abortion training. Interested residents and medical students have the ability to utilize such resources to study the medical and surgical procedures of abortion. Second and third year Ob/Gyn residents have scheduled time available to pursue training. Medical students may pursue training on an elective basis.”
The University of Arizona is known for many areas of their campus life ranging from astronomy, research, Eller College of Management, their affiliation with the Pac-12 and their Greek life system. Being a school with nearly 50,000 students and with the rape culture increasing, there’s a need that’s not being met. Women are getting pregnant and want to terminate their pregnancy because of sexual assault, abnormalities or because they’re not ready for the responsibility of child. In today’s environment, we need local options to accommodate these women, and address these unwanted pregnancies. Having one abortion clinic in Tucson isn’t solving the answer.
“I think it’s a travesty that the University of Arizona doesn’t provide the training or the procedure of an abortion. We are depriving women in this community from the best service,” Phil Lopes, former Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives and nationally acclaimed in public health said.
