The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Iβm writing about abortion in Arizona today, a grim and grievous topic so if youβre hankering for a lighter subject check back next week when Iβll be writing arthritic knee slappers about turning 65.
This past Tuesday, or perhaps it was during the Inquisition, Gov. Doug Ducey, signed a law prohibiting abortions based on non-fatal genetic disorders and thatβs just the beginning.
It goes further.
Docs can face prison time.
The remains must be cremated or buried.
The father has a say.
State university hospitals canβt do abortions.
And that fetus is as much a person as a corporation and thus shall be accorded all the civil rights you and I enjoy.
This ambitious effort was fed to our fine lawmakers, who love children, by the Center for Arizona Policy, a homegrown Christian lobby with an Evangelical edge.
Theyβre our anti-choice, anti-weed, anti-physician-assisted suicide, anti-Equal Rights Amendment and anti-LGBTQ Taliban cabal among the tumbleweeds. If they called for the stoning of harlots and sodomites at noon in Cardinalsβ Stadium on a Tuesday our God-and-Christian-Lobby-fearing politicians would have a bill on Duceyβs desk by Monday.
Most Arizonans suspect that in spite of these prohibitions women will continue to seek abortions and thatβs why we persist in believing they should be safe, legal and, for those who feel queasy about the procedure, rarer than rain puddles in June.
I have a thought about their measure demanding we properly bury or cremate fetal remains. This was important to our politicians who love children and who believe Arizonaβs womenfolk need to be lectured on options, shown videos, told to wait and think it over and be reminded by their moral superiors abortion is a calamitous matter, because, well, theyβre women and certain men know how womenfolk can lack moral instruction and be devoid of grief.
I donβt think this weak attempt by our politicians, who tell us they love children, to spark the Supreme Court into overturning Roe goes far enough. The proud backers of this bill are spinelessly tip-toeing around the logical conclusion of their fundamental premise, unlike one spunky Arizona politician who refuses to beat around the bush, an uncommon man who does not dilly-dally when it comes to abortion like his fellow weak-kneed, Christian lawmakers who, by the way, love children.
That man is State Rep. Walt Blackman, a fearless African-American Trumper from Snowflake who considers the Black Lives Matter movement a terrorist group and belongs to the βStop the Stealβ tribe.
A Bronze Star veteran of Iraq, and a family man, Blackmanβs profile excited my curiosity about his audacious and clear-eyed abortion proposal, what I call his βcut to the chase.β
Blackman fathered a bill in our legislature that would categorize abortion as first-degree premeditated murder. Unlike his fellow-elected, cowardly pro-life peers, I admire the courageous and honest clarity of his daring measure.
And what is Arizonaβs ultimate penalty for willful, deliberate and premeditated homicide? Death. Now thatβs a pro-life position that Arizonans can respect, a foundational beginning. Thank you, Representative Blackman, for your forthright conviction.
But youβre not taking it far enough. Not for Arizona, a state that claims to love our children and care so deeply for their welfare.
Think big and brave, Arizona lawmakers. Designate every private female citizenβs uterus as public property, making womenfolkβs reproductive organs the domain of this state, subject to random inspection, and strict regulation by their devout moral superiors.
And in the name of crime prevention, your uterus should be subject to cavity searches for illegal contraceptives that your betters say kill the unborn.
Be bold. If you believe itβs murder why back half measures?
Pack Arizonaβs Death Row with mothers of all ages. By the hundreds. After putting children in cages this should be breeze. Everyone who aids and abets an abortion should be held, tried, convicted and face a certain death sentence.
That includes Aunt Nelly, Doc Jones, Nurse Maria, Sally the Receptionist and Jimmy the Boyfriend, too. One to a cell. Murderers all.
I was surprised Attorney General Mark Brnovich didnβt back Blackmanβs bill. Heβs so pro-life heβs itching to pump poison into the veins of the living on Death Row. Fill those soon-to-be vacant cells. Deter folks from abortion by making an example of the convicted.
Just because prohibitions and deterrence are never effective at changing behavior is no reason not to enjoy a Godly crusade.
Pass a Mandatory Motherhood Act, compelling women to bear the fruit of rape. Offer $1,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the conviction of any woman seeking an abortion. Triple our prisons budgets. Think big. Do it while you still hold office.
Iβd wait until after next week, after Motherβs Day.
