Adding Arizona to the list of states waging battle in the culture war, Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed bills into law Wednesday banning abortion after 15 weeks, outlawing gender reassignment surgery for anyone under the age of 18, and limiting sports participation for boys and men who claim to be girls and women.
The ban on abortion after 15 weeks is — in some regards — weaker than similar bans in other states. After all, Texas, Oklahoma, and several other states have recently banned almost all abortions after a heartbeat can be detected — at around six weeks. But in other regards, the Arizona law is stronger, since it does not allow exemptions for rape and incest, and doctors who violate the law could face felony charges and the possible loss of their medical licenses.
In a statement on signing the abortion bill into law, Ducey said,
In Arizona, we know there is immeasurable value in every life — including preborn life. I believe it is each state’s responsibility to protect them.
In this, Ducey echoes the thoughts and sentiments of the Founding Fathers and those who influenced their thinking. According to the Founders, the proper role of government is to protect life, liberty, and property.
The 15-week abortion ban is similar to the Mississippi law currently being considered by the Supreme Court, and serves as a stop-gap until the Supreme Court rules on the Mississippi law and the Texas law. That decision — which should come in June — is expected to overturn Roe v. Wade, sending the matter back to the states to decide. The new Arizona law explicitly mentions a law that has been on the Arizona books for more than 100 years that outright bans abortion. That law will be automatically reinstated once the Supreme Court overturns Roe. The new law states — in clear language — that the 15-week ban does not set aside that century-old total ban.
Ducey also signed into law a bill protecting minors from “gender reassignment” mutilation surgery. The law states, “A physician may not provide irreversible gender reassignment surgery to any individual who is under eighteen years of age,” and makes exceptions for the infinitesimal percentage of people who are born intersex — or having both male and female sexual organs.
In a letter announcing his intentions ahead of signing the bill into law, Ducey wrote, “SB 1138 delays any irreversible gender reassignment surgery until the age of 18,” adding, “The reason is simple, and common sense — this is a decision that will dramatically affect the rest of an individual’s life, including the ability of that individual to become a biological parent later in life.”
Ducey’s point about becoming a biological parent flies in the face of the lies of the “trans lobby” — that such surgeries are reversible since a man who becomes a “woman” can later have another surgery to become a man again. The reality is that such surgeries turn those men into eunuchs, incapable of completing the purpose of sexual union — which is the procreation of children. The “gender reassignment” of women into “men” is likewise permanent, since those women can never have children, even if they have future surgeries to approximate female genitalia.
The final bill Ducey signed into law adds Arizona to a growing list of states that have protected girls from being forced to compete with (and share locker rooms and restrooms with) boys. Over the past two years, at least a dozen states have enacted legislation barring “biological males” (which is the only kind of male actually in existence) from playing in girls’ sports. Arizona is now a proud member of that growing club.
And while the “trans lobby” is busying itself calling the law an example of “legislating bullying against children who are already struggling just to get by,” the reality is that the law still allows boys-who-call-themselves-girls to play sports — they just have to play with the boys if they play on a public-school team or a team that competes with public-school teams.
The new law applies to teams “sponsored by a public school or a private school whose students or teams compete against a public school,” and states that teams or sports “designated for ‘females,’ ‘women’ or ‘girls’ may not be open to students of the male sex.”
As Ducey said in a statement about the law,
Every young Arizona athlete should have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities that give them a sense of belonging and allow them to grow and thrive.
He went on to say that the law would guarantee “that the girls and young women who have dedicated themselves to their sport do not miss out on hard-earned opportunities including their titles, standings and scholarships due to unfair competition.”
And while protecting girls’ sports is a worthwhile endeavor, it is actually less important than the real issue at stake here, which this law — and similar laws in other states — does not even mention. That issue is one of truth. Boys are not girls. Period. And while it is a shame to see the likes of Lia Thomas crushing records set by actual females as he competes as a “female,” the real harm being done is that the truth is being sacrificed to a political agenda. By pretending that “feeling like a girl” makes a boy a girl, the very foundation of the expression of our own humanity — comprised of male and female — is lost in the LGBTQ(XYZ) alphabet soup.
And while Arizona missed that point in this batch of legislation, at least one more state is running to the battle in the ongoing culture war and standing up for humanity. As more and more states continue to do so, perhaps some modicum of sanity and logic will return to this great nation.
