Life bills pass Arizona Senate and head to the Arizona House
We’re half way to the Governor’s desk. Two CAP-supported bills affirming the sanctity of life passed the full Senate this week. Next step will be committee hearings in the House sometime in the next few weeks.
SB 1367 updates and strengthens current Arizona law to ensure that babies surviving an abortion are given every chance at life. Already two cases have become public in which an abortion results in a baby being born alive then left to die. As the bill’s sponsor, Senator Steve Smith argued on the Senate floor, once the baby is out of its mother’s womb, it is a live birth and deserves every chance at life.
Watch the floor debate here. (Starts at 00:29:45)
Read more about the bill here.
SB 1439 would protect health care providers from being compelled to violate their beliefs or conscience when treating patients near or at the end of life. This would allow doctors to opt-out of administering higher pain medication than necessary or removing a feeding tube. The bill would not prohibit such treatment, it would simply allow doctors and nurses the right to decline involvement. For years, health care providers have had this legal protection regarding abortion procedures. It’s way past time to extend the same conscience protections to health care providers treating patients at the end of life.
Read details here.
Free Arizona from the Ninth Circuit!
It’s time Arizona gets out from under the Ninth Circuit. Governor Doug Ducey, U.S. Senator Jeff Flake and U.S. Congressman Andy Biggs are promoting legislation that would sever ties with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a move CAP strongly supports. The Ninth Circuit’s caseload and reversal rate is enough to make the case. It takes an average of 15-months to get a ruling and the court is reversed 77% of the time by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Ninth Circuit is overburdened, hearing about 12,000 appeals a year – 30% more than any other circuit.
Read Governor Ducey and Senator Flake’s op-ed here.
Making common sense common again
A victory this week for students across the country! President Trump instructed the Departments of Education and Justice to rescind President Obama’s edict forcing all public schools to open showers, locker rooms and restrooms to both sexes or risk losing federal funds. The move was going to force young girls to undress in front of boys in an unnecessary, agenda-driven dictate.
CAP supporters signed petitions urging Arizona elected officials to reject the overreach by the federal government. AZ Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Superintendent of Public Education Diane Douglas joined other states in suing the federal government.
The Trump Administration’s move will leave the issue to parents, schools and states where it belongs.
Read Ryan T. Anderson’s report here for more on how Congress can make this permanent.
Read what Cathi has to say about it here.
Did Planned Parenthood write this bill?
Senator Katie Hobbs sponsored a bill that only Planned Parenthood could love. SB 1352 would repeal many of the commonsense abortion regulations passed over the years, including informed consent, reporting requirements, health requirements, exemptions for religious organizations based on religious beliefs, prohibition of sex-selection abortion, and more.
Read the bill here: SB 1352