In an often emotional and contentious Committee of the Whole meeting today in the AZ House, House Bill 2677 passed by 32/28 in a largely party line vote, opening the way for the AZ Senate to act to repeal the 1864 abortion ban.
Most of the GOP caucus seemed determined to keep and seek to enforce the ban, damn the electoral consequences.
At the end of the session there was some wrangling to defeat a procedural motion to transmit the bill to the Senate that the GOP leadership felt was unnecessary, and Rep. Matt Gress was removed from the influential Appropriations committee assignment in what appeared to me a punishment for having cooperated with Democrats to bring this bill to the floor for a vote. Democratic Assistant Leader Oscar De Los Santos was also stripped of his assignments on Appropriations and Rules as a last minute pique of rage and revenge.
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R’s – Abortion is murder!
Also R’s – Our stand on the abortion issue is killing our re-election chances!
Something tells me they did the math – The abortion issue is killing us in the polls, what’s the number of votes we can give up and still win in November.
Three. The answer turns out to be three.
They did the right thing for the wrong reason, but hey, a wins a win.
And I just realized I sound like a Republican saying that.
The 3 Republican House members who voted yes with the Dems, are all male: Rep. Tim Dunn (LD 25), Rep. Matt Gress (LD 4) and Rep. Justin Wilmesh (LD 2). These were brave men.
Sounds like the usual mucking around with someone who dares think for himself.
The question nobody has spelled out, if only to remind us: should the Senate concur (and the governor sign on), what will then be the law in Arizona regarding abortions?
Sense and the majority of Arizonans’ opinion on this issue prevailed. Thank you.