Jan Brewer signs abortion ban defining pregnancy before conception

[Galraedia]

Source: Raw Story

Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday signed one of the most controversial and restrictive abortion bans in the country, which experts say effectively bans abortions after 18 weeks and declares that a woman could be pregnant 2 weeks before she even had sex.

“This legislation is consistent with my strong track record of supporting common sense measures to protect the health of women and safeguard our most vulnerable population – the unborn,” a statement from the governor’s office said.

“Knowing that abortions become riskier the later they are performed in pregnancy, it only makes sense to prohibit these procedures past 20 weeks,” Brewer insisted.

Arizona’s HB 2036 takes Nebraska’s 20-week abortion ban one step further by starting the clock on pregnancies at the woman’s last last menstrual period, which could be two weeks before fertilization.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/13/jan-brewer-signs-abortion-ban-defining-pregnancy-before-conception/

[gateley]

1. Aw, Jeez, shut the fuck up, Jan. Arizona, I'm so sorry.

[roguevalley]

21. I think this just raised the iq of other states several points. This is beyond embarrassing.

I like Arizona but I think I am too afraid to ever go there again.

[hyphenate]

2. When does Brewer's term end?

Are there enough people to get her the fuck out of office?

I can only hope there are enough inteeligent and aware citizens in Arizona to vote out those extremists in their state government at the next election.

[sofa king]

23. 2014, with a term limit

However, after a four-year break, she can run and serve another 8 years, if she manages to avoid exposure to sunlight that long.

[hyphenate]

34. Thank you

I extend my deepest sympathies to those of you who are still sane and living in Arizona. You will not be forgotten in your hour of need. Just get behind the first thing that even looks like they're running for governor and get them elected. ANYTHING is better than Brewer, even the dog catcher!

[sofa king]

43. This is a straight-D year if I ever saw one.

Most of us here are straight-D every election, but at this point the only people left who have an actual interest in voting Republican are the very people we are all hoping will take their toys and leave the country once they have to pay a fair tax rate.

That of course won't prevent the knuckle-draggers from voting against their own best interests, as they can be counted upon to do, but thirty percent plus jack shit from liberals, moderates, independents, women, and all minorities and social out-groups adds up to a landslide, perhaps among the largest political swings in our lifetimes.

[savannah43]

3. Hahahahahahahaha!

What a maroon!! This will not stand constitutional muster. Please allow me to nominate Arizona for the designation of worst state in the country. And I thought Bachmann was nuts. This is what happens when not very intelligent wingnuts get to drive the train. If this story gets international legs, we'll be the laughingstock of the civilized world.

[Grassy Knoll]

4. How dare libruls claim a war on woman....

Zip, Zilch, Nada, From Fox, Drugged, or any wrong wing blog.

[SmileyRose]

5. Wait

Isn't this the twit who went all over claiming she was askeered of the Prez because he supposedly attacked her right out there in God's green acres in broad daylight. (and didn't even bother wearing his hoodie to prewarn her of his thuggery?)

[wordpix]

6. geesh, I thought the R's love the Constitution & Roe v. Wade is constitutional

according to SCOTUS.

Another R dangerous moron.

[Kali]

8. so, do you think that is a good insult?

you do realize the people you are really insulting are transgendered people, right? this could get you (deservedly) banned from DU.

[Orrex]

10. +1

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. thank you.

[yardwork]

26. Thanks for pointing that out, Kali.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. So, she has signed immaculate conception into law????

Did not even know she was Catholic.

[connecticut yankee]

11. My last period

before I became pregnant was a week before my wedding, and I was still a virgin.

If I had called off the wedding, would I have still been considered "pregnant?"

[Orrex]

15. Yes of course, you immoral hussy!

And shame on you for getting knocked up pre-flagrante delicto!

Shame!

[christx30]

44. Holy crap...

I could be having sex right now on this bus and not even know it!

[Orrex]

45. If you're having sex and don't know it, then I blame your partner

Tell them to get with the program!

[radhika]

13. Let's assume all girls are pregnant as of their FIRST menstruation....

Women are born with their lifetime supply of eggs. That makes all eggs potential humans, and no medical procedure shall be permitted to block the life of that pre-born human.

I'm snarking, of course. But somewhere in Jan Brewer's AZ, or at an ALEC gathering or Operation Rescue bunker, a deranged anti-choice zealot is smiling at the legislative possibilities.

[stubtoe]

30. Snark? No, not at all. This is the logical endpoint of their rationale.

I'm not kidding.

[EFerrari]

14. Someone has to liberate Arizona with its own Freedom Summer. nt

[bluedigger]

16. How precocious of her!

It took me several years after conception before I learned to write.

[Zoeisright]

17. So she really is as stupid as she looks, huh?

Same with all those other fucking brain-dead repukes.

[beac]

18. So....

according to this new math, if you are a virgin on your wedding night and have a baby 40 weeks later, that baby conceived out of wedlock?

[KansDem]

38. Then what of Deuteronomy 22:13-21?

What will the bible thumpers say to this!

I don't think the GOPers have thought this through...

[beac]

39. Nah, it's all part of their effort to bring back good, old-fashioned

stonings.

[OmahaBlueDog]

19. Election Year Politics

Brewer signs a bill favored by evangelicals, who are lukewarm about Romney.

The bill is immediately challenged and injoined. At it's first federal test, it's booted.

Romney then gets to go to Arizona (a battleground state) and fire up conservatives about his respect for the unborn, his disgust with the activist juduciary, and his love for Jan Brewer ("...who gave a marvelous lecture to President Obama --let me tell you&quot

Meanwhile, very little has actually changed. Brewer simply signed a law that everyone knew wouldn't make it past the first court test.

[Permanut]

20. Okay, so this is fine as far as it goes...

but it doesn't go far enough. a woman should be considered pregnant even if she just sniffs the exhaust from the truck that brings the pregnancy test kits to the neighborhood store.

[BlueIris]

22. Arizona = New Texas.

Just as hazardous and vile a place for anyone with a uterus to live.

[sarcasmo]

24. Ejaculations are next on the list of things to ban. USA! USA! USA!

[IDemo]

25. Next up: Having a twinkle in your eye will be recognized as a life

for those not old enough to know the term: when somebody was a (mere) twinkle in their father's eye (humorous)
at a time before someone was born All this happened a very long time ago, when you were a mere twinkle in your father's eye.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/when+was+a+twinkle+in+father%27s+eye

[patrice]

27. First we had Preventative War, now we have Preventative Legislation.

Are these fetuses Brewer is so concerned about more vulnerable than the children of Iraq were on 9/12/2001?

[secondwind]

28. I'm pro-choice, and thankfully the majority of abortions are performed

before 18-20 weeks.

[rms013]

29. through the backdoor

This is a way to erode Roe v. Wade. Arizona Gov. and legislature determined no abortion could be performed after 20 weeks, then determined pregnancy starts 2 weeks before conception.
20 - 2 = 18.

[sofa king]

33. The backdoor is one way to keep Roe v Wade out of it!

[lonestarnot]

31. And she wants the Post Office to fund their retirement too!

[gtar100]

32. Next step is for them to outlaw menstrual cycles because of the death of a "potential" child.

But nary a peep about men and their sperm-wasting activities.

[Vinca]

35. Or, if menstruation must occur, last rites over the toilet each month.

[secondwind]

36. This woman hasn't had a sperm near her in decades.....

[OKNancy]

41. I hate comments like this

There is enough awful about Brewer without interjecting a comment like this.
Her value as a human, or lack of it in this case, has nothing to do with her sex life or her attractiveness as a woman.
It's a stupid and misogynistic comment.

[KansDem]

37. Let me get this straight...

If you're "pregnant" two weeks before having sex, and a fetus is a "person," then we can declare another dependent on our tax return!

Hurry! Offer expires at midnight tonight (or does the IRS give us one more day since the 15th falls on a Sunday?)

Uh-oh! Another thought... If a "baby" isn't born after we declare it on our tax return (you know, we just didn't have sex during the following two weeks), then will we be investigated for "murder?"

This is all so very confusing...

[freshwest]

46. Wow, what an opportunity. Think of the possibilities!

[SwissTony]

40. So, technically, a woman can still be a virgin and yet be pregnant

Under the right circumstances, of course.

Is a Commom Sense vaccine available?

[Ken Burch]

42. Perhaps this will win Gov. Brewer the endorsement of "Ladies Against Women":

?w=640

[and-justice-for-all]

47. .."common sense measures"!!!! MY ASS!

This is an atrocity and government overreach..how the fuck does this bullshit create jobs!?!?!?

Repukes make me sick. fuck'em all.

[Puzzler]

48. Why doesn't she revise the value of pi while she's at it?

Seriously!

It happened in Indiana. Although the attempt to legislate pi was ultimately unsuccessful, it did come pretty close. In 1897 Representative T.I. Record of Posen county introduced House Bill #246 in the Indiana House of Representatives. The bill, based on the work of a physician and amateur mathematician named Edward J. Goodwin (Edwin in some accounts), suggests not one but three numbers for pi, among them 3.2, as we shall see. The punishment for unbelievers I have not been able to learn, but I place no credence in the rumor that you had to spend the rest of your natural life in Indiana.

Just as people today have a hard time accepting the idea that the speed of light is the speed limit of the universe, Goodwin and Record apparently couldn't handle the fact that pi was not a rational number. "Since the rule in present use [presumably pi equals 3.14159...] fails to work ..., it should be discarded as wholly wanting and misleading in the practical applications," the bill declared. Instead, mathematically inclined Hoosiers could take their pick among the following formulae:

(1) The ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference is 5/4 to 4. In other words, pi equals 16/5 or 3.2

(2) The area of a circle equals the area of a square whose side is 1/4 the circumference of the circle. Working this out algebraically, we see that pi must be equal to 4.

(3) The ratio of the length of a 90 degree arc to the length of a segment connecting the arc's two endpoints is 8 to 7. This gives us pi equal to the square root of 2 x 16/7, or about 3.23.


http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/805/did-a-state-legislature-once-pass-a-law-saying-pi-equals-3

[Ms. Toad]

49. Umm....I know it sounds ridiculous -

but that is the standard definition of gestational age. I'm not sure it is any different than Nebraska's law - haven't checked to see if Nebraska bothered to define it, but if they didn't it would most likely have defaulted to the medical definition:

Gestational age is the time measured from the first day of the woman's last menstrual cycle to the current date. It is measured in weeks.

Read more: http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/002367.htm#ixzz1sEi2t4Pj

The reason I know this is that we knew exactly when our daughter was conceived, because her conception was by donor insemination. So I always thought it was bizarre that throughout my pregnancy, I was routinely treated as if conception had occurred approximately three weeks earlier, on the first day of my last period - because that is the standard all pregnancy care is based on.

(Not defending the law - just providing a reality check that all the bill does is expressly call in the medical definition of gestation)