Last week the Food and Drug Administration approved the abortion pill mifepristone, which terminates pregnancy within the first seven weeks. However, the pill - also known as RU-486 - will not be available at UMC because of a 1972 Arizona State Legislature edict that prohibited abortions at the campus hospital - surgically or not.

The legislative agreement handed down an ultimatum: if the University of Arizona was to receive funds for a new football stadium, the University Medical Center could not provide abortions, thus preventing medical students from learning how to perform them.

Although the bylaw was cleverly paired with the notion of not having a sports stadium, this was probably more about allowing a conservative political body to slip by its views than to make a statement about sports taking precedence over medical issues. Rather, it is a statement about staunch conservatives wanting to ensure their moral views were turned into law - even at the cost of future doctors' educations.

Right-wing lawmakers put a stranglehold on the education of UA medical students, preventing them from knowing how to perform a common, potentially-lifesaving operation. Despite the fact that abortions are legal in Arizona, and UA boasts the only medical school as well as one of the largest medical centers in the state, a doctor trained at the UA does not have the skills to provide abortions.

Presumably, leaders in Arizona's medical profession would like to see a gynecologist trained in the state remain here, but when the doctors are lacking the knowledge to perform an abortion, they are more likely to head elsewhere to set up practice.