Arizona’s Governor Ducey signed four bills today that protect unborn children, protect female sports from biological men, protect children from gender surgeries and protect the voter registration process ahead of coming elections.
Here’s a synopsis from Greg Price:
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey went off today:
– Signed the 15-week abortion ban.
– Signed legislation protecting the integrity of girl's sports.
– Signed a bill banning gender assignment surgeries for minors.
– Signed bill requiring proof of citizenship on voter reg forms.— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 30, 2022
Here’s more from the Washington Times:
Arizona’s Republican governor signed a series of bills Wednesday targeting abortion and transgender rights, joining a growing list of GOP-led states pursuing a conservative social agenda.
The measures signed by Gov. Doug Ducey will outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court allows it, prohibit gender confirmation surgery for minors and ban transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams.
The Arizona abortion legislation mirrors a Mississippi law now being considered by the nation’s high court. The bill explicitly says it does not overrule a state law in place for more than 100 years that would ban abortion outright if the Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that enshrined the right to abortion in law.
Ducey is an abortion opponent who has signed every piece of anti-abortion legislation that has reached his desk since he took office in 2015. He said late last year that he hoped the Supreme Court overturns the Roe decision.
Florida lawmakers passed a similar 15-week abortion ban early this month that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign.
Other states are considering similar bans or passing versions of a ban enacted in Texas last year that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy that the Supreme Court has refused to block.
The president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona called the 15-week ban just the latest in a series of “unrelenting attacks” on a woman’s right to choose by Arizona Republicans.
Meanwhile, Arizona joins a dozen other states with limits on sports participation for trans girls and becomes the third state to try and limit health care options for transgender teens.
Until two years ago, no state had passed a law regulating gender-designated youth sports. But the issue has become front and center in Republican-led statehouses since Idaho lawmakers passed the nation’s first sports participation law in 2020. That law is now blocked in court, along with another in West Virginia.
Republicans have said blocking transgender athletes from girls sports teams would protect the integrity of women’s sports, claiming that trans athletes would have an advantage.
Here’s a little more on the pro-life law from Patch:
The Arizona 15-week abortion ban law contains no exceptions for rape or incest, and would also bar abortions for families that learn later on in a pregnancy that a fetus is not viable, The Associated Press reported. It contains exemptions for medical emergencies in which the mother is at risk of dying or having permanent, irreversible injury.
Doctors who perform an abortion after 15 weeks could face felony charges and have their license suspended or revoked.
I love that there is no exception for rape and incest. It seemed for the longest time that Republicans conceded on this point and while both scenarios are terrible, protecting the life of the child is the most important thing.
Well done Governor Ducey.