The “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011”

Thanks to commenter Ispep Teid for alerting me to this interesting Arizona statute, which was just signed by the governor on March 29:

A. A person … is guilty of a class 3 felony … [if he or she p]erforms an abortion knowing that the abortion is sought based on the sex or race of the child or the race of a parent of that child….

B. The attorney general or the county attorney may bring an action in superior court to enjoin the activity described in subsection a of this section….

D. A physician, physician’s assistant, nurse, counselor or other medical or mental health professional who knowingly does not report known violations of this section to appropriate law enforcement authorities shall be subject to a civil fine of not more than ten thousand dollars.

E. A woman on whom a sex-selection or race-selection abortion is performed is not subject to criminal prosecution or civil liability for any violation of this section or for a conspiracy to violate this section.

F. For the purposes of this section, “abortion” has the same meaning prescribed in section 36-2151[: “Abortion” means the use of any means to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman with knowledge that the termination by those means will cause, with reasonable likelihood, the death of the unborn child. Abortion does not include birth control devices, oral contraceptives used to inhibit or prevent ovulation, conception or the implantation of a fertilized ovum in the uterus or the use of any means to increase the probability of a live birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after a live birth, to terminate an ectopic pregnancy or to remove a dead fetus.] …

A person shall not knowingly perform or induce an abortion before that person completes [a signed] affidavit that … [s]tates that the person making the affidavit … has no knowledge that the child to be aborted is being aborted because of the child’s sex or race….

[Purpose:] Evidence shows that minorities are targeted for abortion and that sex selection abortion is also occurring in our country. There is no place for such discrimination and inequality in human society. Sex-selection and race-selection abortions are elective procedures that do not in any way implicate a woman’s health. The purpose of this legislation is to protect unborn children from prenatal discrimination in the form of being subjected to abortion based on the child’s sex or race by prohibiting sex-selection or race-selection abortions.

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