Unique New Ariz. Law Bans Abortion Based On Race or Gender of Fetus
A new law in Arizona makes it a crime to make a decision to abort a fetus based on its ethnicity or gender Billed as what is likely the first such statute in the country, as far as the ethnicity provision is concerned, the law makes it a felony to knowingly perform or finance an abortion that is being sought because of a fetus’s or parent’s race or the fetus’s gender.
If convicted, violators could be sentenced to over three years in prison, reports the Associated Press.
A few other states, including Illinois, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, already prohibit aborting a fetus due to its sex.
Planned Parenthood of Arizona criticized the law, saying that while the organization condemns racism and gender-based discrimination, it also sees a privacy problem with the government’s requirement, in effect, that a woman explain and justify her reasons for getting an abortion.
