Thanks be to God! CAP was still counting victories for Arizona families right up to the very end! Arizona lawmakers voted to sine die, or adjourn, the 2021 session late today. All told, 14 CAP-supported bills passed and most are already signed by Governor Ducey.

Celebrate with us on these significant wins for Arizona! You’ll count more than 14 because some of the laws include several elements. 

LIFE

• State law granting unborn children all the rights and privileges available to other persons subject to court decisions
• Prohibiting abortion based on genetic abnormalities, such as Down syndrome
• Protecting women by ensuring the abortion pill cannot be sent through the mail
• Requiring proper treatment of an aborted baby’s remains by stipulating burial or cremation
• Providing comprehensive assistance to women seeking to have an abortion, so they can choose life instead
• Increase funding to offer care and support to homeless women during pregnancy and through their baby’s first year of life
• Highlighting adoption as a loving option and providing easily accessible help for women faced with an unwanted pregnancy
• Calling on Congress to protect infants who are born alive at any stage and to provide life-saving care – including babies who survive an attempted abortion
• Showing dignity to aborted babies by changing the term “products of conception” to “unborn child” in Arizona statutes and laws
• Ensuring that birth mothers’ requests to remain confidential are protected in a new measure, allowing adopted adult individuals to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate for personal and medical reasons
• Guaranteeing that compounding medications used to treat pain for terminal patients may not be used to hasten death
• Ensuring the most vulnerable Arizonans – the disabled, the aged, and others – are not discriminated against when needing health care resources during a public health crisis

MARRIAGE & FAMILY

• Prohibiting sex education from being taught before sixth grade and requiring parents to opt-in to sex education in older grades, as well as being given advanced access to the material, both online and in-person
• Expanding those students eligible for Student Tuition Organization (STO) scholarships and bumping the caps, so that struggling Arizona families can find the best educational option for their children
• Increasing “Lexi’s Law” funding, allowing more families with special needs children to afford an education that best serves their unique needs
• Easing the requirement that students qualifying for an Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) only have to attend a public school for 45 days, instead of 100 days the prior year, to be qualified to apply for an ESA

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

• Requiring a hospital to facilitate an in-person visit by clergy for religious purposes, if the hospital allows in-person visitation of any kind

 The 2021 Arizona legislative session was a huge success! We are so grateful for your engagement this session and your support. Thank you!

Within the next week, Center for Arizona Policy Action will be issuing its scorecards so you can see how your legislators voted on these key measures.