Lawmakers in Arizona has presented new legislation that would require prosecutors to charge pregnant women and the doctors performing acts of abortion with homicide.
Republican state Rep. Walt Blackman previously stated that he would introduce the bill, calling abortions clinics “death factories.” Blackman is previously owned for his strict stance against abortion.
This bill will expand the definition of a “person” to include an unborn child in the womb “at any stage of development,” HB 2650 states on the Arizona State Legislature’s website. It also removes any protection for the mothers or any medical professionals. It would allow the state attorney general and county attorneys to prosecute “homicide by apportion” regardless of any conflicting federal regulations to the furthers extent of the law.
“If you want to spout, ‘my body, my choice,’ you need to spend more time in our Arizona penal system. If you are going to kill and end the life of another human being, that is considered murder,” Blackman voiced during a livestream video on Facebook this past August.
9 other Republican representatives have announced their support of the introduced bill, HB 2650.
Democratic lawmakers, including a newly elected representative who mentioned she had previously ended a pregnancy, criticized the proposal on January 21st.
“As someone who had had an abortion, it’s absolutely sickening knowing my colleagues want to sentence my doctor and I to death for choices they have NO BUSINESS dictating for me or anyone else,” Democratic stat Rep. Melody Hernandez posted on Twitter.
Blackman made a stated Thursday, saying he was proud to sponsor he bill and it was time to abolish abortion in the state of Arizona.”
Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision to legalize abortions in the United States, had its 48th anniversary this past Friday.
