“Trick or treat?” would be the question we should ask Planned Parenthood these days. After masquerading as a protector of women’s health and safety for more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has come out opposing HB 2564 and SB 1175 — laws which would secure stronger medical care for Arizona women.

Some of the provisions of HB 2564 and SB 1175 include: requiring notarized parental consent for minors having abortions, requiring physicians to meet with women 24 hours before an abortion procedure in order to disclose the risks and alternatives, protecting rights of conscience of health care workers, and disallowing non-doctors from performing abortions.

These are common sense measures that provide better health care for pregnant women and allow them to make fully informed choices. The “protector” of women’s health, Planned Parenthood, didn’t think so.

With the recent filing of Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Goddard, Planned Parenthood opposed the above laws and Judge Donald Daughton unfortunately granted them an injunction that halted specific provisions in HB 2564 and SB 1175 from taking effect on Sept. 30.

Now, women in Arizona are not entitled to a meeting with a physician 24 hours before the procedure, and non-doctors will be able to perform abortion operations.

Why does Planned Parenthood support such restrictions for Arizona women?
Perhaps because they would affect its gross income.

In Arizona, non-doctors perform abortions at three out of five of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics. With the enactment of the new law, Planned Parenthood might easily have lost 20 to 40 percent of its annual income.

Daughton’s injunction on the new laws effectively saved that income, which last year totaled almost $16 million according to the IRS 990 forms.

Hmm, doesn’t that make the safety of women less a top priority and more an issue of the bottom line?

It’s outrageous that an Arizona woman facing one of the most critical medical, emotional, and yes, spiritual decisions of her life will be denied professional care by licensed physicians for a major surgical procedure — just so a multi-million-dollar organization like Planned Parenthood can make a little more money at her expense.

One club at ASU, Students for Life, aims to do free of charge what Planned Parenthood claims to do for a price: serve pregnant women on campus through activism, hosting speakers, educating and networking with other organizations who really do put the safety and health of women first.

Secretary and treasurer of ASU Students for Life Caitlin Burke said she got involved with the club because she “wanted to be a voice for the unborn babies in the womb — a voice for the voiceless” and “to be there for fellow classmates making such life-changing decisions.”

Students for Life also network with events and organizations in the Valley — one being the Walk for Life, a 2-mile walk and 5K run hosted by Crisis Pregnancy Center on Oct. 24 on Gammage Lawn.

With events like the Walk for Life and a Women’s Health Fair on Hayden Lawn last month, members of Students for Life go the extra mile to serve women facing the realities of an unexpected pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood has played the nasty trick of masquerading as a protector for women, while at the same time compromising strong medical care available to women in Arizona to increase its revenue.

ASU Students for Life, on the other hand, are sincerely concerned about the health, safety and priceless value and dignity of every human life — and they are not wearing a mask. Isn’t that a treat?

Reach Catherine at catherine.e.smith@asu.edu.