Arizona Taliban Lack Courage of Their Convictions

By Michael Bryan

I thought the Republicans in this state had some guts, at least. They know what they believe and watch out if you won't believe it, too.

But in introducing the nation's most restrictive abortion law, the best they can do to punish a doctor who – by thier reckoning – has committed murder most foul is charge him with a class 1 misdemeanor? Seriously?

A class 1 is the same class as simple assault, or a DUI. The most that doctor would be looking at is 6 months in jail (and that full sentence would be VERY unusual) and a $2500 fine. Hardly a fit punishment for murder.

Look, if you really want to impose your religious beliefs on society through the secular criminal laws, do it right. Abortion is murder, right? Charge the doctor with murder for performing an abortion after 20 weeks.

Hell, for that matter, the Christian Talibani believe life begins at fertilization, so why this 20 weeks bullshit? Come on guys, let's really test the current abortion laws and make all abortions murder.

But let's be real for moment. HB 2036, the bill that restricts abortions (in lots of ways, not just penalizing doctors who do them after 20 weeks), is not about saving babies lives. If that were the case, this weak tea compromise to charge doctors who murder them with misdemeanors would not even be considered. This bill is really just about restricting the health and reproductive choices of the women carrying those fetuses.

The shilly-shallying penalty for killing a baby in this bill gives the game away. Either the sponsors don't really believe that these fetuses are legally and morally actual persons, or they are merely using moralistic anti-abortion rhetoric to cover their real intent: to burden and restrict women's rights to as acute a degree as they think they can get away with.

I would like to hear what you think…