Thread by @JMShumway

Senate is now back in session and starting with a final vote on #SB1457, which will ban abortions sought solely because of a genetic abnormality. Bill also includes a personhood clause, stating that fetuses should be considered full humans with all associated rights.

Sen. @LelaAlstonAz, starting debate, says bans on abortions for specific reasons (race, sex, genetics) have always been about chipping away at abortion rights.

Sen. @RosannaGabaldon: "This bill is an attempt by anti-abortion groups to co-opt the mantle of disability rights." It's telling that disability rights groups don't support #SB1457.

.@SenOtondo: #SB1457 does not address the actual needs of people with disabilities — things like health care and economic support.

"Bans on abortion won't make Arizona a better place for people with disabilities. That's a separate conversation."

Sen. @GonzalesSally read a letter from a constituent who works in nursing, then followed up by saying she stands here as a woman, a mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother, and no one should make a decision about abortion for another person.

Sen. @AZKellyT, newly returned to Twitter, says she has been blessed to work as a doula.

"We need to be honest with ourselves. Aborting a child because there's a genetic abnormality is not health care. You're euthanizing a child."

Sen. @jamescita: "What a person does with their body, what a person does to their body is between them and their loved ones."

She calls it gender discrimination, which sparked a loud laugh in the gallery. Peshlakai commented on how that was inappropriate.

.@jamescita cont.: her faith tells her that a child becomes a child when it is born and takes its first breath.
"We deny the opportunity for children that are living and breathing for equal access to social services and programs and we debate this here."

Sen. @PaulDBoyer: "Abortion is not health care. Abortion takes the life of an innocent child every single time. I vote aye."

Sen. @ChristinePMarsh: "If we're going to run bills that impose a person's beliefs on others, we should consider other extremes like a bill that allows an impregnated person to sue the man who got her pregnant if she wasn't ready to be pregnant yet."

Sen. @mendezforaz says #SB1457 does nothing to help people with disabilities.

"This is going to have doctors interrogating women, interrogating their motives as if they're children who can't be trusted to make health care decisions."

.@SenQuezada29: #SB1457 is "plainly unconstitutional" and will result in costly litigation.
"This won't change the need for abortions at all. It will simply make the methodology much cruder." Women could end up throwing themselves down stairs, using metal hangers, etc.

Sen. @Rios_Rebecca: "This bill will endanger the lives of women." It won't reduce the need for abortions.

"We are allowing government to regulate the practice of medicine using criminal penalties. Where does it end? Where do we go next with it?"

Sen. @EngelForArizona says the bill has been amended, but couldn't be improved. She fears #SB1457 will add to an existing shortage of doctors. "Why come to a state to practice medicine when the state legislature will turn you into a criminal for doing your job?"

Sen. @votewarren says the bill isn't about refusing medical care. "I appreciate the comment that many people have passed away from unsafe abortions. Nobody wants that."

.@votewarren continued: Dems argued in favor of autonomy; he thinks they should support the autonomy of an unborn baby and protect its right to live.

Sen. @VictoriaLSteele, the final Democrat to vote on #SB1457, says there are many important issues the #azleg should be focused on, but instead lawmakers are doggedly pursuing anti-abortion laws.

.@VictoriaLSteele: "Before Roe v Wade, a friend of mine was being raped on a regular basis by her father, so at one point she asked 'Daddy, what happens if I get pregnant?' He said 'don't worry about it. If you get pregnant we'll just stick a pencil up there and get rid of it.'"

.@VictoriaLSteele says she sees #SB1457 is about to pass, and all her colleagues' sincere arguments won't change minds. "This is a very sad day for women."

#SB1457 sponsor @nancybarto says the bill doesn't confer personhood on embryos because current Supreme Court rulings don't recognize fetuses as people.

(Her ideological peers are trying to overturn those rulings.)

.@NancyBarto: many doctors disagree with the medical groups whose testimony Democrats read on the floor today. She votes aye.

Sen. @FannKfann called the vote at 16-14. As she announced the phrase, @SenContreras repeatedly called a point of order to say he had his button on to speak. Fann ignored him until she was done calling the vote, then told him he was wrong and she pressed her button first.