Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In addition to the "Baby Blunt" contraception bill I posted about yesterday, the Arizona Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood, HB 2800. Bill on abortion funding advances in Senate:
The state Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to a bill that would prohibit public money intended for family-planning services from going to organizations that provide abortions.
Opponents called House Bill 2800 a thinly veiled swipe at Planned Parenthood that would curtail access to health-care services such as breast exams and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, particularly for Medicaid recipients.
"All they're going to do is alienate 70 percent of the population, and that's not just women but it's men as well," Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, said.
The Senate Committee of the Whole recommended the bill for approval, setting up a vote by the full chamber that would send it back to the House.
Let's hear from one of the "intellectual lights" of the Arizona Senate, Cap'n Al Melvin:
"If this organization Planned Parenthood would get out of the abortion business then this controversy might go away, but it's morally and ethically wrong to expect taxpayers in the United States to pay for abortions," said Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, who signed on as a co-sponsor.
The assumptions contained in this ignorant statement from Cap'n Al Melvin are FALSE. The federal Hyde Amendment banning federal funds for abortions has been in place since 1976. Arizona law already bars the state from using any public funds for abortions except when a woman's life is in danger. Public money may also not be used to pay for a health insurance that provides for abortion services. Not one effin' dime of government money goes to elective abortion services. And yet this LIE persists.
Planned Parenthood does a painstaking job of bookkeeping to keep funds received for women's healthcare services segregated from the funds it receives from donors to provide safe and legal abortions, which accounts for less than 3 percent of its services. Planned Parenthood does this painstaking bookkeeping in the event of an audit of its books from the likes of Arizona legislators.
As the Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Bill seeks to stop Planned Parenthood funding | Arizona Capitol Times:
Rep. Justin Olson, the bill’s sponsor, earlier said any taxpayer dollars that go to Planned Parenthood indirectly subsidizes its abortion services.
Olson said if tax dollars go to groups that perform abortions in addition to offering other health services, then it “frees up” more money for abortion.
This is economic terrorism against Planned Parenthood and the millions of women whom Planned Parenthood serves (and may be the only healthcare provider in their area), in an effort to shut down Planned Parenthood to get at the 3 percent of its services providing safe and legal abortions.
This is a long standing tactic of the Christian Taliban — if they can't outlaw abortion, then they will make access to trained doctors and facilities providing abortion services unavailable, and to make this legal procedure as difficult as possible. Since taking office in 2009, Governor Jan Brewer has signed into law a requirement for a face-to-face consultation with a medical professional at least 24 hours before the procedure, a ban on abortions by nurse practitioners, and a mandate for notarized parental consent before a minor can end a pregnancy.
In this case, the Talibani are willing to defund the only healthcare to which millions of American women have access to accomplish their single-minded goal. Proving once again that for Forced Birthers, "life begins at conception and ends at birth."
In other news, Governor Jan Brewer barely waited long enough for the ink to dry on the engrossed bill before signing HB 2036 into law, giving Arizona perhaps the most restrictive abortion law in the nation. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Brewer signs bill banning abortions after 20 weeks | Arizona Capitol Times:
With Brewer’s signature on HB2036, Arizona becomes the eighth state to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks. The bill also requires women to get an ultrasound at least 24 hours before getting an abortion, requires the state to set up an informational website that women can view before getting an abortion, and requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics.
The bill was a top priority of the social conservative Center for Arizona Policy, which praised Brewer’s decision to sign the bill. CAP President Cathi Herrod also thanked Rep. Kimberly Yee, the bill’s sponsor, and Sen. Nancy Barto, who pushed the bill in the Senate, for helping to pass the “much-needed law.”
By the way, it may actually be less than 20 weeks. Michelle Steinberg, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Arizona, said the law may ban abortions as early as 18 weeks into a pregnancy. She said it requires the gestational age to be computed from the date of the woman's last menstrual cycle, which could have occurred two weeks before conception. Yeah, you read that right. And many abnormalities and deformities cannot be properly diagnosed until after 20 weeks. These babies are "special gifts" from God (but will Arizona pay for the health care of these "special gifts" for the rest of their lives? Hell no!)
"Small government" conservatives means a government small enough to insert into your uterus, and idiot legislators like Cap'n Al Mevin and Justin Olson practicing medicine without a license in the state legislature.