Where 12 anti-abortion bills stand in session
A stroke of luck led muralist Clyde into current artistic
The Arizona Senate on Thursday voted to criminalize abortions based on genetic abnormalities, the latest blow to reproductive rights advocates in the state’s ongoing tug-of-war over abortion access.
Senate Bill 1457 — which makes performing abortions sought due to conditions like Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis a Class 3 felony — passed on a party-line vote after weeks of debate, a dynamic that’s likely to resurface in the House.
The measure is one of at least 12 pieces of anti-abortion legislation put forward by Arizona Republicans this year, building on the state’s already expansive restrictions.
Buoyed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s newly cemented conservative majority, GOP legislators have proposed a host of changes, from limiting access to abortion medications to charging those who seek abortions with murder.
“As legislators, it is truly our job to protect Arizona’s most vulnerable patients,” Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, said. “Arizona women ... deserve better than to have their health gambled to benefit the abortion industry.”
Not all of the dozen measures are still active, though.
Six, including a bill that would have treated abortions as homicides, appear to have stalled. Four have neared the finish line in their legislative chambers of origin but haven’t quite made it across. Three are marching ahead.
Here’s where things stand with abortion-related bills at the Capitol.
Disabilities are prominent issue
The bill passed Thursday, Senate Bill 1457, doesn’t just punish physicians who abort fetuses with genetic abnormalities. It also allows the state to slap clinicians and counselors who fail to report violations with $10,000 fines.
Barto, the bill’s sponsor, argued the legislation was needed to protect Arizona’s most vulnerable, such as those with Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis.
But reproductive rights advocates contended Barto was using the disability community as a pawn to push through several other controversial provisions contained in the bill, such as one conferring personhood “rights, privileges and immunities” to a fetus at any stage of development.
“This is not a policy that is being promoted by a disability rights group. Rather, it is a cruel attempt to, yet again, limit abortion, this time by targeting families who seek this option after learning that the fetus has developed a disability,” Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona representative Marilyn Rodriguez said during a legislative hearing last month.
No disability rights groups registered support for the bill or testified in favor of it. Medical organizations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Arizona Medical Association, Arizona Public Health Association opposed the measure.
In addition to the genetic abnormality provisions, the bill prohibits public educational institutions from providing abortion counseling or referrals and prevents public money from supporting research involving abortions or embryo transfers.
It also forbids the mailing or delivery of abortion-inducing drugs, which doctors also use to manage miscarriages, and requires fetal remains to be buried or cremated.
It was the personhood provision, though, that seemed to most rankle the several faith leaders who testified against the bill.
“Jewish law is clear that life begins at birth and not prior,” Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman told senators. “Each of us has the right to interpret scripture according to our own understanding, but that does not mean that one interpretation should be legislated over others.”
Support for ‘born alive’ legislation
Two other abortion-related measures have passed the Senate and are awaiting House consideration.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 1009 calls on Congress to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.
Sponsor Sen. Sine Kerr, R-Buckeye, said the federal initiative would “reinforce” an Arizona law requiring doctors to try to save babies born alive — controversial because it applies not only to traditional elective abortions but also cases where doctors induce delivery early because a baby is not expected to live.
Another measure, Senate Bill 1254, requires state health officials to create an online list of agencies and services available to assist women through pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood. The bill, sponsored by Barto, explicitly bars the inclusion of any agency that “counsels, refers, performs, induces, prescribes or provides any means for abortion.”
Leading Arizona anti-abortion lobbyist Cathi Herrod told senators “the option of adoption should be easily accessible and simple to navigate,” arguing organizations that provide abortion information don’t prioritize adoption.
Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson, and Sen. Tony Navarrete, D-Phoenix, said they had no problem with the state providing adoption information.
But Gonzales said she “really, really” had a problem with DHS not providing comprehensive health information alongside it. And Navarrete said the state should focus on its overtaxed foster care system first.
Discrimination, religious objections are focus of other bills
Four abortion measures garnered enough votes to make it out of committee hearings but haven’t received a final floor vote in their chambers of origin. If that doesn’t happen by the end of next week, it will significantly dim their chances of success.
Senate Bill 1381, sponsored by Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, would make knowingly performing an abortion based on sex or race a Class 2 felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, up from a Class 3 felony.
It also would criminalize abortions based on a fetal disability — defined as an “impairment that is expected to substantially limit one or more major life activities of an unborn child” — and would increase the maximum civil penalty for failing to report such an abortion from $10,000 to $20,000.
Like Barto, Rogers said the legislation “gives voice to those who have no voice.”
At a legislative hearing last month, before parents and grandparents of children with disabilities delivered emotional testimony about the value of their lives, she asked: “Who are we as a country if we cannot protect those who cannot protect themselves?”
American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona representative Hugo Polanco, however, said the bill doesn’t actually do anything to make the lives of Arizonans with disabilities better.
“It does not improve their access to health care, education or other services, nor does it educate a woman and her family about having a child with a disability,” he said. “It only criminalizes doctors and further restricts the woman’s ability to decide what’s best for her and her family.”
Sen. Lupe Contreras, D-Avondale, agreed, despite sharing that his own parents opted to proceed with having him after doctors’ warnings.
“It was a hard decision they had to make, and they made it, and I’m here today because of it,” he said. “But not every parent can do that, and we as a state have not risen up to be there (for families of children with disabilities.)”
Another Rogers measure, Senate Bill 1362, would extend the right to refuse to participate in abortions or administer emergency contraception to medical or pharmacy students.
Rogers has described the legislation as “a religious conscience bill,” saying it “simply enables a student to withdraw and someone else to replace him or her in such a procedure.” But OB-GYNs have cautioned against advancing a bill they say conflates emergency contraception with abortion.
House Bill 2404 and Senate Bill 1251 began as mirror measures seeking to establish a $3 million pilot program to promote childbirth and adoption while restricting abortion information. The House later amended its version to establish quarterly reporting requirements for the program.
If neither bill gets a formal floor vote, sponsors Rep. Michelle Udall and Sen. Kelly Townsend — both Mesa Republicans — could try to incorporate the program into budget talks.
Some bills to criminalize abortion haven’t received hearings
While no bill is fully defeated until the Legislature adjourns, five abortion bills seem to have stalled.
House Bill 2650, from state Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, was the only bill that sought to punish both women seeking abortions and professionals who perform them.
It would have required county attorneys to treat abortions at any stage of pregnancy as homicides — including as first-degree murder, which can result in the death penalty or a lifetime sentence — and allowed the state attorney general to bring charges as well.
“This is the type of bill that makes everyone stand alone and answer for their decisions on life and death, regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on,” Blackman said at a January anti-abortion rally at the Capitol. Anything less than his proposal would amount to merely “regulating murder,” he said, calling the bill “perfect.”
House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, disagreed, opting not to assign the bill to any committees.
Blackman’s House Bill 2878, which also sought harsher criminal penalties for abortions, and House Bill 2877, which would’ve prohibited the state from using staff or other resources to “enforce, administer or cooperate with (landmark abortion rights decision) Roe v. Wade,” never got committee hearings, either.
Nor did two other proposals from Rogers.
Senate Bill 1641 would’ve made any physician who performed a “dismemberment abortion” — presumably a reference to a procedure where forceps are used to remove fetal tissue in later stages of pregnancy — guilty of a Class 6 felony punishable by up to two years in prison.
Senate Bill 1383 would’ve charged medical professionals who performed abortions after detecting a fetal heartbeat with a Class 3 felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison.
House Concurrent Resolution 2028 never advanced, either, but not or lack of support: It called on Congress to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which SCR 1009 already accomplished.
Aristotle referenced in a NASCAR story? You’re more likely to see the Phoenix Raceway pace car be a Rolls-Royce.
But the ancient philosopher just might have been on to something that helps us understand Brad Keselowski, the strong-willed yet seemingly calm champion of NASCAR’s top two series, no matter if he wins or wrecks. Which is what happened to him on the final lap of last month’s Daytona 500, clearing the way for Glendale’s Michael McDowell to finish first in The Great American Race.
Unable to reconcile Keselowski’s on-track on-thegas style vs. off-track apparently neutral demeanor, some otherwise learned students of the stock car sport have taken to calling him an enigma.
In other words, Keselowski is Greek to them.
A wider perspective is required to better understand the 2010 NASCAR Xfinity Series and 2012 Cup Series champion.
Look past his fire-resistant uniform, festooned with corporate logos like the 37 candles on Keselowski’s birthday cake last month. (Discount Tire, with headquarter offices in Scottsdale, is a major sponsor.) Watch more than the way he speeds along in the No. 2 Wurth Ford Mustang in the March 14 Instacart 500 at the Avondale oval. Take in not only the racer, but the man, and the high-octane way he goes about being both.
Enigma? No.
It’s his ethos. That’s the correct word. Aristotle is said to have coined it, to refer to a person’s character or personality, especially passion for all he does.
“I’m a firm believer in the Wayne Gretzky story that you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” Keselowski said. “And I’m not afraid to miss, either. Missing is part of life. I can live with a miss. I can’t live without trying.”
Keselowski Ethos Maxim 1: Be bold. Don’t be afraid of failure.
Still hurts
Consider this: Keselowski is the winningest driver in the 50-plus year history of American racing’s winningest team, owned by retail automotive and truck leasing entrepreneur Roger Penske. Keselowski’s 66 victories top Penske’s Hall of Fame driver roster, a list that includes Mark Donohue, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Allison, Rick Mears, Mario Andretti and the Unsers.
So it shouldn’t be a big surprise Keselowski says he’s still not over missing the 2020 Cup by 2.7 seconds to Chase Elliott last November at Phoenix Raceway.
“The wound is still there,” Keselowski admitted during a recent lengthy interview with The Arizona Republic.
“I’m not a very good loser. It’s something I’ve tried to work on and be better at. But not getting the job done is not fun for me.
“In some ways it’s good because it forces you to go back and get better. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, to use it as fuel to get better.”
Wallace, who won 37 times for Team Penske, likes that attitude.
“I totally get it why Brad says that,” said Wallace, the 1989 Cup titlist and two-time runner-up. “To be that close to something’s that such a big deal. You feel bad for the team and sponsors, but nobody feels worse than the driver. You can’t just walk away from your car and say, ‘Oh, well.’”
Penske recalls Keselowski had earlier passed Elliott but “at the end, we didn’t have the best pit stop ... there was just no way he could catch the 9 (Elliott).
“Sure, he’s disappointed, because of the kind of work you have to do to get in that position with 10 or 15 laps to go and you have a competitive car and don’t deliver. He should feel bad because that will keep him even tougher to try to get back (again be eligible in the championship race, Nov. 7 at Phoenix Raceway.)”
That drive showed at Daytona in NASCAR’s biggest race, one Keselowski has yet to win. About one mile from the finish line he tried to pass teammate Joey Logano — who Keselowski had urged Penske to hire — for the lead. Logano blocked, they made contact, and both crashed. In a somewhat rare public display of emotion, Keselowski got out and threw his helmet at his car.
Ethos Maxim 2: Use disappointment as motivation.
What it takes
The Keselowskis of Michigan were determined and respected racers in Brad’s youth.
Dad Bob was the 1989 ARCA series champion. Uncle Ron did a bit of NASCAR racing in the 1970s then became his brother’s car owner. Brad’s brother, Brian, drove some, too.
“My dad was really big on working Saturdays, working late, working Sunday if we had to,” Keselowski said. “Whatever it takes to win. He pushed me very hard on that.
“My dad and uncle could build anything with their hands. I couldn’t work a welder or grinder like they could, so, I had to figure out other things.”
Like driving. Hard. And with a plan. “Even at a young point in his driving career he had a very clear vision, impressive for his age, of what he wanted his racing career to be,” said attorney John Caponigro, CEO of Sports Management Network, which represents Keselowski. “All the way up through envisioning that he was going to win the Cup championship some day.”
By 2009 he was winning for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series. He won in just his fifth Cup Series start with Carl Edwards crashing spectacularly in front of him coming to the checkered flag at Talladega, Alabama.
His reputation was that of a man in a hurry. Which can be good and bad.
“I understand his urgency,” Earnhardt
said at the time. “He wants a job. He wants to move out of that two-bedroom duplex and move into the $3 million houses like me and Denny (Hamlin, a sometimes rival) live in.”
‘Tough time’
Keselowski had contested a few Cup races for the powerhouse Rick Hendrick team and believed he was going to advance full-season in 2010 after, Hendrick thought, Mark Martin had retired. Martin didn’t, and Hendrick didn’t have an open seat.
“That was a tough time for me,” Keselowski said. “He communicated to me that he wanted me to drive the car fulltime and I said, ‘Yes, let’s go.’ And then he came back and said, ‘I’ve changed my mind.’”
Caponigro says he asked Penske, who was watching several young Xfinity drivers, to “keep an eye” on Keselowski. Penske requested a meeting, which Keselowski delayed, just in case Hendrick reversed course.
Keselowski wanted to compete fulltime in both Cup and Xfinity. Discount Tire’s sponsorship allowed Penske to do so. In 2010 Keselowski won six races en route to the Nationwide Series (now Xfinity) championship, Penske’s first in NASCAR.
“I feel like I did everything that I was supposed to do, and it wasn’t enough,” said Keselowski, reflecting on his Hendrick near-miss. “It was probably a good life lesson for me that you have to accept that there are some things that you can’t control. You can influence them but you can’t control them. It pushed me and made me grow as a person.”
Ethos Maxim 3: Sometimes you have to start over. That’s life.
Winning, learning
Keselowski was winning, having fun, and doing things his way.
Somehow he got Penske, the epitome of buttoned-down GQ business fashion, to wear blue jeans.
When he won five races and finally earned Penske an elusive Cup championship in 2012, Keselowski hoisted a large pilsner glass in victory lane, toasting the achievement with (sponsor) Miller Lite. More than once. (”I had a hell of a time.”)
During 2010 driver introductions in Bristol, Tennessee, he took the public address microphone and told the crowd: “Kyle Busch is an ass.”
Said Penske: “He’s a smart guy. He’s learned if he has something to say, he probably needs to say it privately. That’s been a very good step forward. He also understands how important it is that he represents his sponsors. The sponsors aren’t interested in having cowboys as drivers.”
Ethos Maxim 4: Learn your limits. Throttle-back, if necessary, to stay within them.
KAM can
Keselowski owned a Camping World Truck Series team for a few years, but far greater ambitions awaited.
He closed the team and, in 2019, launched Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing, in a 70,000 square-foot North Carolina facility. One of his 50 employees has the title “chief scientist.”
Keselowski said he’s sole owner, which required multiple-millions of dollars to launch, and has cutting-edge technology for advanced hybrid manufacturing. Aerospace and defense industry companies are believed to be customers. Non-disclosure agreements keep him mum.
Ethos Maxim 5: Plan ahead.
‘Ethos of gratitude’
Keselowski, with a wife and two young daughters, is in the last year of his contract. Garage area chatter constantly is about young — less expensive — drivers. But Penske, Keselowski and Caponigro all expect to finalize a new deal.
“There is an ethos of gratitude,” Keselowski said, finally using the ‘e’ word. “I’m a religious man. I can’t say I’m the best but I’m trying to be. I’m grateful for everything I have in my life. In a lot of ways that’s what the American flag stands for to me.
“Somebody once said Dale Earnhardt was a ‘very complex but simple man.’ He was very relatable to the simple man, but he wasn’t a simple man. I’m not Dale Earnhardt and I’m not trying to say I am. I think there’s some commonalities. I try to lead the most simple life I can.
“I’m a race car driver. I’ve got a lot going on. I don’t expect that to be relatable to the average person you might poll on the street. That’s OK. I’m doing things my way. I’m enjoying every second of it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
Now you know the ethos of Brad Keselowski. Thanks, Aristotle.
Tempe-based artist Clyde fought the treacherous winds and waves of the sea on a ship in Alaska like he was in an episode of the television show “Deadliest Catch.” He didn’t paint for months. ● He signed up for the job because he craved adventure. ● “I get bored really easily. I need to do things that seem new and challenging,” he said. “That damn near killed me and I literally went crazy so, I got my experience.” ● He returned to Phoenix after four months at sea and painted a mural of a woman on a wall downtown titled “Wherever You Go” in 2019. After that calls for more murals started rolling in.
“That was a pretty big turning point for me to becoming an artist,” Clyde said. “I was literally just painting because I hadn’t painted in forever and I was just doing some for fun.”
But he’s not an overnight success. The Tempe native has been painting for 10 years.
While you may not know his name, if you’ve driven through downtown Phoenix or Tempe, you’ve passed a Clyde mural.
The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright
As a kid in Tempe, Clyde Thompson, he only uses his first name as an artist, had dreams of becoming an architect and admired the work of legendary designer, Frank Lloyd Wright, who had a big presence in Arizona.
“He was known for working with the environment and making sure his buildings weren’t going to corrupt the environment he was building in,” Clyde said.
After graduating from McClintock High School he went to Arizona State University to study architecture.
While in college he was also developing as an artist. When a restaurant owner caught Clyde painting a mural on a building he didn’t have permission to use as a canvas, fate stepped in.
“He was mad, but then he hired me to paint his restaurant. After that I got this validity and I felt like, you can actually make money doing this and there’s a career in it,” Clyde said.
“I started seeing how many artists around the world were doing these huge murals. I was like, wow, that’s what I want to do.”
Clyde graduated ASU with a bachelor’s in design studies in 2016.
His interest in architecture wasn’t over, it just took a different form. In his murals Clyde still admires the work of Wright and the philosophy behind his work.
“The most work I do is before painting,” he said.
“I take into account so many different things, like how the colors are going to affect the environment, what type of space I’m painting in, who’s going to see it, what’s the feeling it’s going to put off and then how to scale the wall.”
‘Dreams on pause’
You might think a mural is Clyde’s if it’s blue. His murals around Metro Phoenix take on a cool tones, but he says that isn’t always on purpose. He simply uses the paint he has on hand.
It doesn’t hurt to have some cool tones against the warm sand and rocks of the desert.
One of Clyde’s most recent murals is titled “Dreams on Pause” rests on a wall in Danelle Plaza in Tempe, the same building that holds Yucca Tap Room. The image depicts a man lying in a flower
field, his head propped up by a basketball that’s been struck by an arrow.
Fate stepped in again as Clyde sat near the wall sketching what he would soon paint when a man walked by to sit on the nearby sidewalk. The man laid back on the sidewalk in the exact same pose as he’d drawn on paper.
“If that’s not a sign to go with this, I don’t know what is,” Clyde said.
“Dreams on Pause” was painted in March of 2020, just as the nation began
to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At that time, many dreams did seem to be put on pause.
“I’d been freaking out for years, now everyone else is freaking out. I kind of feel good now that the world has stopped and everyone gets to take this time and just relax and take a second off from the hustle of trying to pursue your dreams every day,” he said.
The basketball in the image signifies the dream, the arrow represents the things that try to deflate that dream.
“But the guy is resting on (the basketball) and he’s all right. It’s a moment to relax. I wanted to have those two juxtapositions of, ‘am I freaking out or am I really relaxing?’ Like, how are you gonna react to the situation?” Clyde said.
‘Graffiti & Love’
But that’s just one of the many murals Clyde has painted in the area over the last decade.
He’s most proud of a 14-story mural he painted in 2019 on a spillway in Tempe in an off-the-beaten-path location near Interstate-10 and Warner Road. It’s titled “Graffiti & Love” and was painted as a tribute to his best friend, Hannah, who died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The mural is on private property, so it’s not accessible to the public. He painted a symbolic key to the location in his mural at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Phoenix. Clyde painted the key inside a prism in the mural.
Up next, the artist is working on a 300-foot mural for a local Boys and Girls club.
Clyde is an artist full of adventure and wild stories, though he’s reserved and doesn’t often talk about them. Much like his murals, there’s a story behind the man if you take the time understand it.
There’s a joke in “Coming 2 America,” the so-so sequel to the 1988 hit “Coming to America” (note the subtle but important title change) that is one of those meta bits that’s supposed to let us know the movie is winking at the audience.
Two characters are talking about American films. Eh, one says — nothing but superhero trash and sequels.
“This is true about sequels,” the other person replies. Then, together: “If something is good, why ruin it?”
That’s either a sign of confidence or tone-deafness on the part of the filmmakers, depending on how you feel about the film. And the original.
In fact, the first film, starring Eddie Murphy as Prince Akeem, the heir to the throne of the fictional nation of Zamunda, and Arsenio Hall as his sort-of faithful sidekick Semmi, was just that: good. Not great, though it enjoys an outsize reputation in retrospect. Murphy and Hall are really funny in a variety of roles, but the story is lacking.
Eddie Murphy’s sense of comic danger is missing in ‘Coming 2 America’
The two actors provided a zaniness that original director John Landis captured, elevating the film. Craig Brewer, who directs the sequel, can’t repeat the feat. Then again, a lot of time has passed since we saw these characters.
That’s not really it, though. It’s more how safe the comedy feels. The best bits in “Coming to America” are the ones in which it seems like Murphy, who disguises himself as a regular guy in order to find true love in America, could go in any direction. There’s an edge to Murphy on display there — certainly not like in his best films, like “48 Hrs.” But enough to make everything that much more interesting.
There are some problematic developments in the sequel, and it doesn’t have that same sense of invention and touch of danger to it.
The story is simple. King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) is dying. Akeem will become king, but so far he and his wife Lisa (Shari Headley) have only had daughters. They love them and Akeem dotes on them. But the law of the land is that the heir to the throne must be male.
This is politically important, as well. Gen. Izzi (Wesley Snipes), leader of Nextdoria, wants his son to marry one of Akeem’s daughters and thus eventually inherit the throne. But then King Jaffe and Semmi tell Akeem a long-held secret: He has a son in America.
“A bastard son,” as the various characters say about 500 times. You can discover for yourself how this came to be — probably you understand the biology of it, but the rest isn’t great.
One of the funny parts of the original film was Akeem concealing his identity. There’s none of that here. Instead, Akeem and Semmi quickly find Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) in Queens. Soon, accompanied by Lavelle’s mother (Leslie Jones, hilarious as ever), they’re off to Zamunda.
Leslie Jones and Wesley Snipes round out the sequel’s cast
Of course, this sets up all kinds of new problems, like Akeem having to explain Lavelle’s existence to Lisa and his daughters. Meanwhile, Gen. Izzi has hit upon a new plan: Lavelle will marry his daughter instead.
There are some fish-out-of-water segments as Lavelle tries to learn how to be a prince. While this is happening, he becomes closer to Mirembe (Nomzamo Mbatha), the royal barber who knows a lot about Zamunda’s history — and Akeem’s.
There are a number of cameos that shouldn’t be spoiled. And some of the individual scenes are funny, particularly anything involving Jones and her character’s joy in adapting to the royal life. Murphy and Hall also bring back some of the characters they created in the first film, like the gang at the barbershop. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you were a fan of Sexual Chocolate, you’re in luck.
Ultimately “Coming 2 America” isn’t a sequel that ruins the original. But it doesn’t improve upon it, either.