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PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have required doctors performing some abortions to tell women that their unborn children might feel pain.

HB 2254 would have mandated that a woman who is at least 20 weeks into her pregnancy be told that her unborn child "has the physical structures necessary to experience pain."

And the doctor would have needed to tell her that at this point in development, a fetus draws away from surgical instruments "in a manner that in an infant or an adult would be interpreted as a response to pain."

Physicians also would have had to give women the option of having a separate anesthesia or other drug given directly to the fetus.

Napolitano, in a three-sentence veto message, called the legislation "an unwarranted intrusion by politicians" into the doctor-patient relationship.

"The Legislature should not attempt to substitute its judgment for that of trained physicians with respect to professional advice given to patients," the governor wrote.

"I believe she probably vetoed it because she just didn't like it," said Rep. Pam Gorman, R-Anthem, who shepherded the measure through the House and the Senate. But Gorman said the governor "just couldn't write that."

Gorman said her measure did, in fact, dictate what doctors must say to patients. But she said her measure is not unprecedented, and a variety of regulations already on the books do the same thing.

In a related matter, the Senate voted 18-10 Tuesday to require that a parental consent form necessary for a minor to have an abortion be notarized. Proponents of HB 2666 said this ensures that a teen or her boyfriend does not forge the paper to get around the law.

That measure leaves untouched other sections of law that allow a minor who believes she is mature enough to ask a judge to permit an abortion without parental consent.