Senator Nancy Barto, who backed a controversial new law that bans abortions based on genetic abnormalities and threatens abortion doctors with jail time.
By Josh Kelety | Phoenix New Times
Arizona lawmakers who oppose abortion rights are lately looking to Texas for inspiration.
Last week, a highly restrictive Texas law that bans abortions after roughly six weeks and empowers private individuals to sue abortion doctors or anyone who “aids or abets” abortion procedures went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block it.
Related: Lawsuit seeks to block new sweeping anti-abortion law in Arizona
Now, at least one anti-abortion Arizona lawmaker is thinking about mimicking the Texas law. State Senator Nancy Barto, a Republican who backed Senate Bill 1457 — a controversial new law, signed by Governor Doug Ducey earlier this year, that bans abortions based on genetic abnormalities and threatens abortion doctors with jail time — tells Phoenix New Times that she is thinking about introducing a local version of the Texas law during the 2022 legislative session.
“I am seriously considering it, yes, but I can’t say for certain at this point,” Barto wrote in an email. “We will be watching closely to see what happens in the courts with the Texas law and other pro-life laws moving through the federal courts, including Arizona’s new law prohibiting abortions of unborn children like those diagnosed with Down Syndrome.”
