Arizona Senate Wants to Make It Legal for Doctors to Lie About Birth Defects to Prevent Abortions
Arizona’s long nightmare of being outshone on the national nutbaggery stage has finally ended this week, as the state’s Senate passed a bill that would essentially allow doctors to lie to women about birth defects in the name of preventing abortion. It’s always nice to get a big Fuck You-gram from the state house.
The sponsor of the law, sensibly referred to as the “wrongful birth” bill, says it’s designed to protect medical professionals from litigious parents of disabled children who blame the doctor when everyone knows that birth defects are caused by God, who is punishing women for having abortions. Opponents point out that “wrongful birth” lawsuits are rare and don’t need to be combatted with their own legislation. And it’s worth noting that, in theory, this law would make it legal for doctors interested in pushing their own agenda on parents to withhold information on anticipated birth defects they believe might lead the parents to choose to terminate their pregnancy.
So, if you’re keeping score at home, thus far, various state governments think that the following entities are better at gauging what women should be doing with their body parts than women themselves: churches, bosses, parents, husbands, and doctors. And let’s absolutely not forget state legislators.