PHOENIX – Calling it a "dark day in Arizona history," House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding released the following statement today after Governor Ducey signed an extreme and unconstitutional 15-week forced-birth abortion ban (SB1164), a sweeping and unconstitutional attempt to slow minority voter registration (HB2492), and two bills that target and scapegoat transgender youth who wish to play sports and seek gender-affirming healthcare and counseling (SB1138 and SB1165).
"This is a dark day for Arizona," Bolding said. "With the stroke of his pen, Governor Ducey has hurled Arizona backwards to its ugliest past. Today he put the lives of pregnant people and transgender youth in danger, curtailed voting rights for communities of color, and rolled up the welcome mat and painted the state we love as intolerant and hateful.
Governor Ducey has no right to insert himself into private medical decisions and to force a person to be pregnant against their will. This extreme abortion ban all but ends a right that is supported by the vast majority of Arizonans and Americans. Criminalizing healthcare is not 'pro-life.'
The attacks on transgender youth and their families are right-wing bullying and government overreach at their worst. Trans rights are human rights. Once Governor Ducey and Republicans have moved on to other culture war issues to rile up their right-wing base, the damage to the lives of real people will continue.
And finally, Arizona's protections to keep non-citizens from voting are robust, and they work. For the Governor to embrace the Big Lie – the conspiracy that the 2020 election was not free and fair – is incredibly disappointing. This unconstitutional bill violates the National Voter Registration Act and recent Supreme Court case law, according to House Rules attorneys, and will surely end up in court at taxpayer expense."
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