Three bills sponsored by lawmakers who attended the anti-expansion rally last week were vetoed by Governor Brewer since then. While the Governor is reportedly courting democrats like Senator Leah Landrum Taylor on the ninth floor, she using her “well-inked” veto stamp against popular republican legislation.
The Governor has vetoed H2481 (permissible consumer fireworks; penalty), H2591 (governmental reporting; websites; budgets) and S1437 (music therapists; licensure) SB1439 (legal tender), and SB1371 (municipal elections; ballot disclosure).
Sponsors of three of the vetoed bills stood behind Senate President Andy Biggs at a Medicaid expansion opposition event last week at the Capitol.
SB1437 sponsor, Senator Kelli Ward noted on her Facebook page that all three of the sponsors “oppose Medicaid expansion and bigger government,” and she posted on a reporter’s Facebook page that she has put the music therapists in contact with Worsley in the hopes that he can help them out next year, according to the Yellow Sheet. Worsley is a wealthy republican Senator, who has joined with Senator Rich Crandall, who is expected to leave the Legislature at the end of this session, and Senator Steve Pierce, who briefly held the Senate president’s spot last year, in supporting Brewercare.
On another front, the Governor has been trying to convince opponents that Brewercare will not fund abortions, however according to the California-based Life Legal Defense Foundation, “The expansion will “increase the amount of government money that goes to abortion providers.” The group says that Medicaid expansion would increase the money that will “directly pay for abortion.” “Our preliminary research shows that Arizona’s interest in protecting human life will be adversely impacted by participation in the Medicaid expansion,” the group wrote to Representatives Seel and Smith. “This is true because the Medicaid expansion will increase the amount of government money that goes to abortion providers, including the amount of funding that is used to pay directly for abortion.”
The California-based group also noted that a federal court has blocked the implementation of H2800 (Laws 2012, Chapter 288), which sought to preclude Planned Parenthood from getting Medicaid dollars because it provides for abortion services. Since AHCCCS already covers families with children, LLDF also argued that Medicaid expansion would draw in “demographic of persons particularly likely to seek abortion,” such as young women. “Planned Parenthood, the very organization that has so recently sued to keep the money flowing into its coffers, will be commensurately profited by an expansion of the Medicaid program within the State,” the group claimed.
AHCCCS, which spells out what abortion services are covered, requires prior authorization for medically necessary abortions, except in the case of emergencies.