Arizona passes new abortion law

harleysportster
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Arizona passes new abortion law

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arizona-abortion-20120414,0,5499426.story

 

Arizona passes law restricting abortion

The legislation, which largely bans the procedure after 20 weeks, follows similarly strict laws in Virginia and Mississippi. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer says it protects 'the health and safety of women.'

 

April 13, 2012, 4:00 p.m.

 

 

LAS VEGAS — Following a national trend of new get-tough abortion legislation, Arizona has passed a law that severely restricts the procedure, banning most abortions after 20 weeks — setting the stage for another showdown between social conservatives and women's rights groups.

With GOP Gov. Jan Brewer's signature on the Republication-sponsored legislation, Arizona took a stand on an issue that could become fodder during this year's presidential campaign. Proponents say the law protects fetuses, which they say can feel pain after five months of development.

The new law "strengthens Arizona's laws protecting the health and safety of women, and recognizes the precious life of the preborn baby," Brewer said in a statement.

Arizona's law follows similarly strict actions passed by two other politically conservative states. In February, the Virginia Legislature passed a bill requiring women to have a transvaginal ultrasound before they may have an abortion, a requirement critics said violated a woman's rights. Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell ultimately rejected the mandatory transvaginal procedure.

In Mississippi, where abortion laws are already among the nation's strictest, conservative lawmakers have passed a bill — still awaiting the signature of the Republican governor — that would shut down the state's only clinic providing the procedure. Critics say the law would force many poor women into seeking risky illegal abortions.

 


In 2011, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina and Oklahoma enacted 20-week bans. Nebraska passed similar legislation in 2010.

Abortion rights groups have blasted Arizona's law as reckless overreach by conservative lawmakers. "Politicians should not be involved in a woman's personal medical decisions about her pregnancy," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. "It is important that abortion remains a safe and legal medical procedure for a woman to consider if and when she needs it."

The new Arizona law also requires state officials to host a website with images of fetuses at various stages of development for women to view. Proponents said the 20-week abortion ban would not apply in medical emergencies.

Critics say the law endangers the health of both mother and fetus. Women at risk of pregnancy complications "will be forced to decide whether to proceed with their pregnancies in the dark, before they have all the information they need to arrive at their choices," the advocacy group Center for Reproductive Rights said in a statement.

Arizona legislators are also pursuing a bill to allow employers to refuse health insurance coverage of birth control for religious reasons.

Planned Parenthood warned that pregnant Arizona residents could now face the same crisis as a Nebraska woman they said was forced to continue a pregnancy even after a health crisis meant she was going to lose the baby.

The woman, Danielle Deaver, was forced to deliver a baby she knew would die minutes after birth, because her doctors feared prosecution under Nebraska's 20-week abortion ban, the group said.

Deaver later wrote a letter of appeal to Brewer. "Because lawmakers in my home state of Nebraska passed this sweeping abortion ban, my family's personal loss a year and a half ago became a nightmare," she wrote, according to Planned Parenthood.

"That my pregnancy ended, that choice was made by God. How to handle the end of my pregnancy, that should have been private. But the decision that should have remained mine and my husband's at a very difficult time was decided for us — and it was decided by politicians we'd never met.

Abortion foes say Deaver's case was an anomaly. "What happened to Danielle Deaver was a tragic thing, and I'm not a doctor who can say what should have happened there," said Ingrid Duran, a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Right to Life Committee. "But the Nebraska bill has a carefully crafted medical emergency clause.

"These laws, including the one passed in Arizona, recognize that unborn children at 20 weeks of age feel pain and we have a responsibility to protect them under law."

Matthew Benson, a spokesman for Brewer, said that Arizona's law previously forbade abortions once a fetus was viable outside the uterus, a term he described as between 22 to 24 weeks. "This law has bumped that deadline up to 20 weeks," he said.

Benson said he wasn't sure whether the new law would become fodder for the presidential race. "It's safe to say that abortion frequently comes into play in every election, so I wouldn't be surprised at all."

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


harleysportster
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The Danielle Deaver

The Danielle Deaver case in this article really pisses me off.


digitalbeachbum
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harleysportster wrote:The

harleysportster wrote:

The Danielle Deaver case in this article really pisses me off.

Yet another case of politicians who claim "no more big government" yet they pass laws like this to control more and more of your personal life.

Yes, that Deaver case really is annoying.

I think there should be a mandatory requirement that 50% of the elected officals (senate and congress) be women. I think that would help reduce the number of male influenced laws, which I believe is the case with this new law.

 


harleysportster
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digitalbeachbum wrote:Yes,

digitalbeachbum wrote:

Yes, that Deaver case really is annoying.

I think there should be a mandatory requirement that 50% of the elected officals (senate and congress) be women. I think that would help reduce the number of male influenced laws, which I believe is the case with this new law.

 

 

The Deaver case certainly demonstrates the dangers of too much government intervention into our private lives. I agree, we need and equal division of sexes in office. That might change things.

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


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I'd say education is equally

I'd say education is equally important. Fact is most politicians are ignorant assholes who spent a few years in law school. Where are the scientists, doctors, and labourers?

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digitalbeachbum

digitalbeachbum wrote:

harleysportster wrote:

The Danielle Deaver case in this article really pisses me off.

Yet another case of politicians who claim "no more big government" yet they pass laws like this to control more and more of your personal life.

Yes, that Deaver case really is annoying.

I think there should be a mandatory requirement that 50% of the elected officals (senate and congress) be women. I think that would help reduce the number of male influenced laws, which I believe is the case with this new law.

 

 

Actually there is very little gender difference in abortion views and there never has been. As Vastet points out education is important and has a far greater effect on abortion views than gender. 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/127559/education-trumps-gender-predicting-support-abortion.aspx

 

And the governor who signed the law is a woman...

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X


harleysportster
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Vastet wrote:I'd say

Vastet wrote:
I'd say education is equally important. Fact is most politicians are ignorant assholes who spent a few years in law school. Where are the scientists, doctors, and labourers?

 

You hit the nail on the head with that one.

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno