PHOENIX — From a courtroom last May, the horrors of abortion became common knowledge throughout Arizona.

Abortionist John Biskind of the A-Z Women's Clinic was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. His victim, 32-year-old Lou Anne Herron, had pleaded for help as she bled to death in the clinic while Biskind ignored her so he could finish a sandwich and catch a plane.

Despite public outrage over Biskind, Arizona pro-lifers failed for the seventh year in a row to get an informed-consent law that would establish a 24-hour waiting period for abortions and require abortion-ists to fully inform their patients about potential risks.

This year's defeat — in a legislature dominated by Republicans — could be the work of newly elected Gov. Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona attorney general who is known nationally as an aggressive supporter of abortion.

The latest informed-consent bill died in the state Senate Judiciary Committee on April 2 after a turbulent but successful trip through the House of Representatives. Sup -porters of the bill place the blame squarely on Napolitano, a Demo -crat who campaigned on a “pro-choice” platform. An Internet blog site for Napolitano calls her “the strongest abortion-rights proponent in the entire country.”

“The governor has worked incredibly hard, behind the scenes, to defeat this bill,” said Cathi Herrod, director of policy for the Center for Arizona Policy, which lobbies for legislation to protect the traditional family. “She has worked hard enough to somehow get three pro-life Senate Democrats to say they would vote against informed consent.”

One of them was Sen. Jack Brown, a self-proclaimed pro-life member of the Mormon Church. Brown did not return calls from the Register but stated publicly on the Senate floor he would oppose the bill at the request of Napolitano because she had convinced him the state's budget crisis is too severe for the Legislature to get bogged in an abortion controversy.

Untimely Meeting?

The bill was first introduced in the House on March 12, where it received only 29 of the 31 votes it needed to pass. One key Dem -ocratic supporter of the bill, Rep. Cheryl Chase, was not present for the vote because Napolitano's staff had summoned her to the office for a meeting that afternoon.

“They wanted to discuss issues specific to my community,” said Chase, who hails from the village of Kearny, Ariz., and represents a rural district between Phoenix and Tucson.

Chase, as explained in a memorandum from the Center for Arizona Policy, “left the floor at the request of the governor's office to avoid providing HB 2493 the margin of victory. ... There she sat while the bill failed by one vote, as security personnel and pages scurried throughout the Capitol searching for her.”

That's not exactly what happened, however, said Brian Lawson, media coordinator for the House of Representatives.

Lawson said the whereabouts of Chase were no mystery in the Legislature that day. He said Chase had planned to be at the governor's office and to vote on the bill later that afternoon. Lawson explained that the bill was about 34th in line for consideration that afternoon, and Chase's meeting in the governor's office took place first thing in the afternoon.

“Then, for whatever reason, House Speaker Jake Flake [a Republican from Snowflake, Ariz.] moved the bill to the front of the agenda,” Lawson said. “As a result, the vote was taken hours before Rep. Chase expected it to occur.”

Was it a conspiracy between the governor and the speaker of the house? Not likely, according to sources close to both.

“[Center for Arizona Policy] claims that we were holding her in our office so she would miss the vote,” said Chris Mayes, spokes-woman for Napolitano. “That simply isn't the case. It's an absurd allegation and it hardly merits comment.”

Mayes said the governor's staff routinely asks to see legislators, and it was merely coincidence that her meeting took place during a controversial vote.

Jake Logan, director of external affairs for Flake, said the order of bills is frequently rearranged spontaneously for a variety of reasons. Flake, in fact, has been a major supporter of the informed-consent bill and voted in favor of it. Logan said Flake's office takes no stand on the allegation that Napolitano's office intentionally tried to make Chase miss the vote.

Logan, however, said nobody's ruling it out.

“The governor has certainly worked hard against this bill,” he said. “She has lobbyists on her staff who have been assigned specifically to try to kill this bill. From the speaker's point of view, just because we have a pro-choice governor doesn't mean we shouldn't try to get pro-life legislation passed.”

Chase also takes no position in the controversy, saying she has no idea whether Napolitano and her staff conspired to keep her away from the House floor long enough to miss the vote.

“I have a long history of being a pro-life Democrat, and it's a well-known fact that I'm pro-life,” said Chase, a nurse who attends a Baptist church. “They called me in for the meeting, but I could-n't honestly say what their intentions were. There's just no way to know that.”

Vote Reconsidered

The bill passed the House 33-27 on a second vote taken March 18. It received a reconsideration vote only because Rep. Gary Pearce, a pro-life Republican, voted against the bill initially and demanded it be voted on again. Pearce voted against it in its first round because he realized Chase and two other supporters were absent. By Arizona law, a member who votes on the winning side of a bill has the right to call it up for reconsideration.

Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy said despite Napolitano's overt support of abortion rights, she seems emphatic about not having pro-life bills come across her desk.

“She could just let them go through the normal channels and then veto them, but we suspect she's afraid that would create bad feelings in the Legislature and make problems for her,” Herrod said.

Mayes, the governor's spokes-woman, said it's real simple why the governor doesn't want pro-life legislation to move forward: “The governor supports a woman's right to choose.”

Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.