A judge on Friday rejected an effort by GOP lawmakers to use the term “unborn human being” to refer to a fetus in the pamphlet that Arizona voters would use to weigh a ballot measure that would expand abortion access in the state.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten said the wording the state legislative council suggested is “packed with emotion and partisan meaning” and asked for what he called more “neutral” language. The measure aims to expand abortion access from 15 weeks to 24 weeks, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb.
It would allow exemptions to save the woman’s life or to protect her physical or mental health. It would also prevent the state from adopting or enforcing laws that would forbid access to the procedure.
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, a co-chair of the legislative council, said the group will appeal the court’s decision to the state Supreme Court.
The idea of a fetus being perfectly capable of sustaining itself outside the womb at 24 weeks is laughable at best. In developed countries, the chances are like 45-60% and in developing countries as low as 10%. The extraordinary measures required to sustain them at this stage of life are everything from CPAP/Ventilation, intravenous feeding, to temperature regulation through incubators. Without these, even in the best equipped hospitals, survival is a significant challenge. In low resource settings, where such interventions are sparse or non-existent, the chances of survival plummet drastically. In a developed nation like the USA, one also has to consider the vast amount of financial resources required to accomplish this task, which again, speaks to the amount of care these extreme right radicals extend to post birth vs pre-birth.
24 weeks is arbitrary at best and deceptive and emotionally manipulative at their worst.
This decision is best left to the mother and her doctor or doctors.
I thought the idea using 24 weeks as the line was that at 24 weeks the fetus may be able to survive outside the mother, even if the chance is low, but before 24 weeks the chance of survival is negligible.
I’m not even sure that’s a viable argument in a nation where 7.6% or 25.0 million Americans of all ages did not have health insurance in 2023 and 66.5% of bankruptcies are caused directly by medical expenses (making it the leading cause for bankruptcy).
I dunno how America has managed to survive this long while not giving a shit about the health of its population.
In our defense, it wasn’t always this way. I think it was around the 80’s that everything took a turn for the worse and financial profit became more important than anything else.
Reagan really was the worst thing to ever happen to America.
Worst thing to ever happen to America SO FAR.
It’s true.
“Unborn human being”:
Arizona “Christian” Nationalists are complete morons.
Arizona“Christian” Nationalists are complete morons.
I’ve a very political continuous person - volunteer with democratic groups, do poll observing, research local Arizona ballot measures on the local news sites and ballotipedia, etc…
I have not once seen any of these “informational pamphlets” out in the wild. Others said that they get them mailed to them, but I’ve never gotten one. I’ve seen sample ballots - but those don’t have for/against arguments, just the text of the measures. They can call them “sanctified holy pre-people to be saved from the baby meat-grider” and it wouldn’t really mater if no one ever reads it.
