Posts tagged arizona

I’m talking about this:

Arizona lawmakers give abortion restrictions sharper teeth

As far as this article is concerned, both sides are using made-up and/or beefed up information to make their argument.

Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, cited figures from the Frederick Douglass Foundation which said that 30 percent of all abortions in Arizona are to black women. The latest census figures show people who identify themselves as black at 4.1 percent of the population.

But the Arizona Department of Health Services reports that in 1999, the most recent year available, 7.3 percent of all abortions were to black women.

Shooter said he was got the press release from Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, the sponsor of the legislation. Montenegro, in turn, said he was relying on the foundation, which describes itself as Christian and pro-life; the foundation’s founder, Timothy Johnson, said he got the Arizona statistics from a researcher on his staff.

But Montenegro said any discrepancy in the data is irrelevant.

I’m pretty sure the Frederick Douglass Foundation has a vested interest in exaggerating the discrimination against black people.

And it’s irrelevant that it might not be a problem in Arizona anyway? They can’t even cite cite their resources! They’re made up! Some idiot pulls numbers out of their ass and we’re passing legislation on it? Legislation that can PUT PEOPLE IN JAIL if someone determines they acted on a pregnant women’s request for help and she happens to be black, or was impregnated by a black, or might not want a girl?

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said there is no evidence of gender-based abortion in this country. She said the problem is confined to countries like China where parents generally are limited to a single child, and India where parents worry about the cost of a dowry to marry off a girl.

But Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, cited a study based on 2000 census figures from U.S. families of Asian ancestry. It found that when a family already had two girls, the chances of the third child being male was 50 percent higher.

That, Barto said, shows evidence that parents are using abortion for gender selection.

How exactly is that evidence? I can’t remember what that type of argument is called (besides bullshit) when you jump to a conclusion based on not enough information.

Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, said the issue is money.

She read a release from Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union which said Planned Parenthood is willing to accept “racist donations, even to the point of being excited at possibility of taking money specifically to kill a black baby.” That release also said Planned Parenthood puts its facilities “strategically in minority and urban neighborhood.”

Excited. Right. Pro-choice people are targeting minorities, according to the NATIONAL BLACK PRO-LIFE UNION. Gee, their “proof” won’t be biased at all!

The reason Planned Parenthood puts its facilities in minority and urban neighborhoods is that’s where the poor people live. The ones who don’t want a/another child, the ones who can’t afford REAL health care and need those facilities for MORE than abortions, like mammograms, birth control, STD testing, etc. There’s going to be one in just about every college town, because that’s the major age group of women who need their services. They go where the need is; they don’t create the need.

Why are republicans so stupid? Why are they so determined to enforce their will upon everyone else?

Why can’t they just mind their own business?