AZ: Judge: GOP use of 'unborn human being' is a biased way to describe abortion rights ballot measure

Republican lawmakers violated state law when they used the phrase “unborn human being” to describe the Arizona Abortion Access Act in a voter information pamphlet, a Maricopa County judge ruled on Friday.

“The only issue before the Court is whether the phrase ‘unborn human being’ as approved by the Legislative Council is ‘an impartial analysis of the provisions of (the subject) ballot proposal’ as required by (Arizona law). It is not,” Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten wrote in his ruling.

State law mandates that lawmakers create “impartial” summaries of every ballot measure for a publicity pamphlet sent to voters before the November election. After a legislative panel of eight Republicans and six Democrats voted along party lines to approve a description of the abortion rights initiative that included “unborn human being” in the first sentence, the initiative’s campaign went to court.

Backers of the abortion rights proposal argued the phrase illegally injects political bias into the summary and should be replaced with “fetus” as the more medically accurate, neutral term. Attorneys for the eight GOP lawmakers sought to convince the court that, because the phrase is a direct quote from the state law limiting abortion to 15 weeks, it should be regarded as impartial and left in place.




https://azmirror.com/2024/07/26/judge-gop-use-of-unborn-human-being-is-a-biased-way-to-describe-abortion-rights-ballot-measure/