Dr. Richard Carmona: Governor Brewer and Arizona’s Legislature Got It Wrong

BlogForArizona Exclusive:

By Dr. Richard Carmona

The Arizona legislature pushed bad health policy throughout its session, and Governor Brewer just compounded those mistakes by signing a bill blocking access to contraception.

This new law doesn't make any sense — and the harm it will cause the women of our state is startling.

There is absolutely no reason to make it harder for anyone to have access to contraception. We should be focused on expanding access to health care, not slashing it. And for our government to be doing this is unconscionable.

Governor Brewer had expressed concerns about this poorly thought-out health policy pushed by our state legislature. Unfortunately, she seems to have caved to the same partisan pressures that are paralyzing our politics — signing the bill late on a Friday while few were watching.

This is a symptom of a bigger problem. The career politicians in Arizona and Washington are making decision after decision that benefit only their own personal politics and party. It's shameful.

This week started with Governor Brewer signing a bill banning funds for Planned Parenthood, and it sadly ends with her signing a bill blocking access to contraception. Let this be the low point for how we legislate health care in Arizona.

We deserve better leadership than this and we can get it. We can bring back rationale leadership to our state capitol and to Washington. We can take partisan politics our of health policy.

I called on Governor Brewer to veto this bill. I wish she had.