WASHINGTON — In a party-line vote, Republicans in the Arizona Senate passed an anti-abortion bill that, if signed into law, would severely limit the availability of reproductive care and interfere with Arizonans’ freedom to control their lives and bodies by giving fetuses personhood. The bill is just the latest example of the GOP’s zeal to attack doctors over reproductive health care, and comes alongside Republicans’ equally chilling push to outlaw medical care for transgender youth.
“Medical care should be up to doctors and patients, not politicians,” said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Jessica Post. “The decision to become a parent is a deeply personal one. That choice should be made by individuals and families — not overzealous Republican lawmakers. This legislation has nothing to do with health care or protecting anyone — it’s all about the GOP exercising greater control over our lives and catering to the extremists in their right-wing base. We need to elect more Democrats to stop Republicans from passing these disastrous laws.”
The anti-abortion bill establishes fetal personhood, threatens access to birth control and allows an individual’s family members to sue patients and doctors to interfere with abortion services. It also bans mailing abortion-inducing drugs, which are critical in a rural state like Arizona. In other words — this bill is a direct attack on individual freedoms and the right to control your own future.
Republican state legislatures across the country are increasingly passing abortion restrictions, with the aim of setting up a Supreme Court case that can challenge Roe v. Wade. A recent report shows that over 500 abortion restrictions have been introduced in states so far this year, up from 300 by the same time in 2019.
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