Arizonans protest abortion restrictions
Rights activists nationwide join for ‘Stop the Bans Day of Action’
Dozens of abortion-rights activists gathered at the state Capitol in Phoenix Tuesday morning as part of a nationwide effort to protest laws placing extreme restrictions on abortion recently adopted in some states.
Carrying signs and chanting, activists gathered on the lawn to listen to speakers and stand in opposition to the bans happening across the country.
“We are going to fight for our reproductive rights regardless of what they have been trying to enforce on us, and what they will continue to try and enforce on us,” Arizona resident Ava Budabari-Glenn said.
Demonstrators lobbying against the laws were met by advocates of tougher restrictions outside the Capitol, where speakers from abortion-rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union were scheduled to appear along with some state lawmakers.
The nationwide effort was designated by organizers as the Stop the Bans Day of Action. The abortionrights protest comes on the heels of several laws
“Politicians should not be interfering with my personal decisions ... or anybody’s personal decisions about their health care.” Kathy Brody Legal director, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona
Kern, R-Glendale, said there was no reason to allow victims who were sexually assaulted as children to tell their stories.
No reason to allow them to explain why it takes decades for victims to acknowledge even to themselves what happened to them and to come forward.
No reason to allow them to explain why it’s important that they be able to hold their rapists and the organizations that enabled them accountable, if only to ensure that today’s children are protected.
Kern, channeling his inner insurance lobbyist, said Boyer’s bill would just “line attorneys’ pockets” at the expense of businesses.
“We have a constitutional right protect business,” he proclaimed.
I’m not sure where it’s written in the constitution that businesses have a right to be protected when they harbor predators. But I’m pretty sure we have a moral obligation to protect children.
Do you really think the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church are now doing more to weed out child predators because they had a sudden crisis of conscience?
Apparently, our leaders do because Boyer’s bill never even rated a vote. Bowers’ four-day-old bill, meanwhile, passed on a 5-3 party line vote on May 20 and now awaits a vote of the full to House.
Boyer says he’s not budging on the budget until his bill gets a vote. Neither is Carter, who on Wednesday questioned why House Republicans had to go behind closed doors to talk about the bill, which she called a “sinister” attempt to kowtow to insurance companies and their clients at the expense of child victims of sexual assault.
“This is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t understand why we are twisting and turning the Legislature inside out to prevent victims from telling their story,” she told me. “This issue is absolutely cut and dry. We should be standing with victims, not insurance companies or anybody else who is building a whisper campaign against it.”
That leaves Republicans without enough votes to pass an all-GOP spending plan.
“(Bowers’ bill) leaves the vast majority of victims behind,” he said. “You may find one or two victims who may come forward in their 20s, but it just doesn’t happen.”’
Which, I’m guessing, point of Bowers’ bill.
The insurance lobby is more potent than I realized.
You’d think it would be a simple thing for Bowers or Senate President Karen Fann to put Boyer’s bill to a vote.
Unless, that is, they’re worried might actually pass. is the whole it