The GOP war on women returns

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The GOP war on women returns today in the Arizona Tea-Publican legislature.

Uterus-stateFirst, the bad news. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Bill banning abortions after 20 weeks sent to Brewer – Arizona Capitol Times. It is actually less than 20 weeks, based on how the bill calculates time from the menstruation cycle, making Arizona one of the most restrictive states for a safe, legal abortion.

The House’s vote of 37-22 on Tuesday sends the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who has signed previous anti-abortion legislation.

Besides the 20-week ban, the bill’s other requirements include mandating the state establish a web site with images of fetuses at various stages of development for women to view.

The 20-week abortion ban would affect only a tiny percentage of abortions performed in Arizona.

The state would join six other states that have similar bans.

Now the good news, at least for today. It appears bill sponsors cannot convince two Tea-Publicans to switch their votes following the defeat of the "baby Blunt" bill last week that would allow any employer to object to a health insurance plan providing coverage for female contraception based on religious or moral objections.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Senate skips voting on contraception bill – Arizona Capitol Times:

The Senate today skipped voting on legislation to allow employers with a religious objection to deny contraception coverage to their workers, which indicates that proponents have yet to persuade enough lawmakers to back the controversial proposal.

The bill was pulled from the calendar a minute before senators were scheduled to vote on it.

The measure could still be brought back for a second vote at any point.

Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, a key ally of the pro-life movement, said supporters will try for a second vote tomorrow.

* * *

Today’s cancellation reflects the difficulties of convincing lawmakers to approve the bill with the promise that it would be substantially narrowed down shortly after.

The plan is to make the change in a conference committee, where a select group of legislators will meet to approve a final language.

Supporters need two senators to change their vote to “yes” in order for the measure to pass. Contact your state senator today.

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