State Representative Steve Montenegro seems to think he represents a district in China -- where aborting babies based on sex or race might actually be a problem.
Montenegro's introduced two bizarre bills into the legislature -- one that would require women getting an abortion to sign a document promising they aren't aborting the pregnancy based on sex, and another promising they aren't aborting their pregnancy based on race. Under the proposed law, anyone caught doing so could be slapped with a class-three felony.
Nobody wants to see a baby aborted for either of those reasons -- if those sort of things were actually happening in Arizona, which they're not.
"There is no indication that this is even an issue," Planned Parenthood Arizona spokeswoman Cynde Cerf tells New Times.
We asked Cerf why Representative Montenegro would even bother addressing
such a non-issue. She says "this is just to further damage the
reputations of women who get an abortion."
"This bill is trying to create the impression that women and families have abortions based on race or sex," she continues.
Montenegro did not immediately respond to an email this morning.
The bill is being heard in the House Health and Human Services Committee
today, which means we will be paying our elected officials to -- yet
again -- sit around and discuss a problem that doesn't actually exist.
Even if the bill does become law, and someone actually wanted an
abortion for one of those reasons, we'd love to hear Montenegro's plan
to enforce it -- in other words, lying about why you want an abortion
isn't all that tricky.
We'll let you know if Montenegro gets back to us.
