Our LD-6 State Representative Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, jumped right into the new legislative session pushing his number one priority — which is no one else’s as people die, lose their jobs and homes, and suffer in isolation in a once-in-a-century pandemic. Blackman has introduced a plainly unconstitutional bill that would require prosecutors to charge women who opt to end their pregnancies — and the doctors who help them do it — with homicide. His misogyny and legal ignorance reeks. Not surprisingly, his LD-6 seatmate Brenda Barton, R-Payson, jumped right on board with him.
Blackman shrugged off legal protections enshrined in federal law, arguing that Roe v. Wade is only an “opinion” and the U.S. Supreme Court should “honor (Arizona’s) sovereignty.” Ever heard of the Supremacy Clause, Walt? Or the 14th Amendment? We are the United States of America, not the Confederate States of America as much as your hero — the twice-impeached-former-President, and apparently, you and Brenda would have it otherwise.
House Bill 2650 says county attorneys must pursue criminal prosecutions “regardless of any contrary or conflicting federal laws, regulations, treaties, court decisions or executive orders. “The legislation, which expands the definition of a “person” to include “an unborn child in the womb at any stage of development,” would allow both the state attorney general and county attorneys to prosecute “homicide by abortion.” It removes existing protections for “an unborn child’s mother” as well as “the person … performing an abortion” with the mother’s consent. Eight other Republican representatives have signed on in support of the bill.
Perhaps Blackman and Barton would consider something constructive for newborns, like HB2101 appropriating additional funds for AHCCS for post-partum women?
See Maria Polletta Arizona Republic, January 21, 2021
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