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Republicans Continue Their Attacks on Women

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Arizona Legislature has approved an anti-abortion bill that includes generally banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The House's vote of 37-22 on Tuesday sends the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who has signed previous anti-abortion legislation.

Besides the 20-week ban, the bill's other requirements include mandating that the state establish a web site with images of fetuses at various stages of development for women to view.

The 20-week abortion ban would affect only a tiny percentage of abortions performed in Arizona.

The state would join six other states that have similar bans. Nebraska enacted its in 2010 and five others followed in 2011.

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Permalink Reply by Pat on April 16, 2012 at 9:14am

The statute talks about a "20 weeks" being the limit at which a woman can terminate a pregnancy. This is, in fact, false. It is actually less than 20 weeks. More like 17 weeks. And the reason why? Because of a little slick trick that was inserted into the law. You see, according to the Arizona legislature, the beginning of gestation is not when the egg if fertilized. Gestation begins on the first day of a woman's last menstrual cycle; whether or not fertilization occurs. In other words, by statute law, a woman's pregnancy begins before she is pregnant. Anti-science is now the law in the Grand Canyon State.

Arizona House Bill 2036, Section 36-2151, subsection 4, states, "'Gestational age' means the age of the unborn child as calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman."

Religious conservatism isn't a race to the bottom of the intellectual barrel. It's a race to see who can lift the barrel, and get completely underneath it!