State marriage amendments are now 32 for 32 – in each state where the people have been able to vote on marriage, the people have said YES! to protecting marriage. Only through the courts and state legislatures have advocates in a small minority of states been able to redefine marriage to include same sex couples.

On Wednesday, after this historic vote in North Carolina, President Barack Obama made some history of his own, becoming the first sitting U.S. President to support redefining marriage, the cornerstone of our society.

The President’s announcement was no surprise to those who have followed his statements on marriage. It’s a relief to have the President finally state his position clearly so that no one can doubt or explain away how the President views marriage. I will leave it to the political pundits to dissect the President’s motivation and timing for his statement. This much is clear however — within hours, those favoring same-sex marriage began donating significant dollars to re-elect President Obama.

• HB 2622 enables children attending schools that have received “D” or “F” grades from the state and children adopted from foster homes to be eligible for Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program.
• SB 1365 protects professionals from losing their state licenses for practicing their faith and strengthens protection for religious organizations that contract with the state.
• HB 2625 protects religious employers from being forced to violate their religious beliefs by being forced into providing insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and contraception.

She has until Tuesday to act on these bills. Follow our Facebook page for the latest updates.

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and education establishment have continued their campaign to encourage Gov. Brewer to veto these bills. If you haven’t yet, please take a minute today to send her a quick note in support of these four bills! And, take a few minutes to pray!

If space permitted, I would also thank each and every legislator who stood with us this session.  Alas, I will ask each one of you to do so when you receive the voting records next week for your two state representatives and state senator. For now, I do want to thank Senate President Steve Pierce and House Speaker Andy Tobin for their leadership in making sure CAP-supported bills made it through the legislative process.  Take time to send those two leaders a quick thank-you email for their support – click on their names above to send them an email.

Finally, THANK YOU! It’s because you turned out to vote your values in the 2010 elections that we were blessed with the pro-life, pro-family majority in the state House and Senate.

On the Foundations blog, we share their editorial, but also point out that today’s pro-life movement is stronger – and more diverse – than ever before. This legislative session is an awesome example of women and men coming together to defend life, vulnerable women, and preborn children.

1. They claim they do not use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. Yet one taxpayer dollar that goes to Planned Parenthood for anything frees up another dollar to fund their abortion operation. Any funding to Planned Parenthood supports abortions.
2. Despite being Arizona’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood claims this bill will deny women access to other medical procedures including cancer screenings and women’s health services. Once again, this is not true. The bill does not reduce the funding by one penny – it simply prioritizes the funding to healthcare providers who can provide more comprehensive services. There are plenty of options for women to access care in Arizona.

Our friends at BridgeBuilders are hosting a prayer event at the state Capitol that day. Check out other prayer events across the state at the National Day of Prayer website.

Take time on Thursday to lift Arizona and America up in prayer. Attend an event. Pray with your family, especially your children. Pray for wisdom and protection for our leaders at all levels of government. Ask for the church to stand up this election season and that the foundational values of life, marriage and family, and religious liberty are protected and respected in our nation.

Now that these two important bills are heading to the Governor, she needs to hear from you that you support HB 2800 and HB 2625!

Click here to send Gov. Brewer a message online.

• SB 1359 – Prohibits so-called “wrongful life” lawsuits against medical professionals for misdiagnosing or not diagnosing a birth defect of a preborn child, which, if known, would have led to the child being aborted. Sen. Nancy Barto sponsored this bill.
• HB 2627 – Prohibits abortion providers from qualifying for Arizona’s Working Poor Tax Credit, including Planned Parenthood. Rep. Debbie Lesko sponsored this bill.
• HB 2265 – Ensures that arts funding in Arizona is not used to deface religious objects or promote obscenity. Representative J.D. Mesnard sponsored this bill.

Citizenlink covered these victories – read their story here.

You can track the progress of this and the remaining CAP-supported bills in action with our online Bill Tracker or on our Facebook page.

Through the hard work of the CAP team, our friends at the Legislature, and YOUR support, we experienced some very significant success this week.

As we reported yesterday, Governor Jan Brewer signed one of the most significant pro-life bills in Arizona’s history.

Please take a moment today to send Gov. Brewer an email, send her a message on her Facebook page, or send her a tweet @GovBrewer. She is definitely hearing from the pro-abortion side – let’s make sure she knows our gratitude for her stand in defense of preborn children and their mothers.

Of course, Gov. Brewer would not have had the opportunity to sign the bill if it hadn’t been for the many legislators that voted for and spoke out in support of the bill. On Tuesday, the House gave HB 2036 final approval before sending it on to the Governor. Led by bill sponsor Rep. Kimberly Yee, many gave very powerful speeches in support of the bill. Read more about this floor session on the Foundations blog. Watch the entire floor debate here.

Yesterday, Gov. Brewer also signed into law SB 1009. Led by our allies at Arizona Catholic Conference, SB 1009 requires that adoption and childbirth be presented as preferred options over abortion in any public school presentations.

If you were to listen to opponents, you’d be led to believe HB 2625 was some extreme bill that would make Arizona an outlier among states. The reality is, this bill puts Arizona in line with a majority of states regarding insurance mandates. Read our news release from yesterday on the bill to find out its true impact, and take time to read this editorial from Senator Nancy Barto that clears up many of the misconceptions about the bill.

I’ve repeatedly said that CAP does not take a position on family planning or birth control. We do, however, take a very strong position in support and defense of religious liberty. Neither the government nor an individual should be able to compel anyone to violate his or her religious beliefs, and HB 2625 seeks to ensure that this does not occur.

• HB 2036 Passes Senate – The same Arizona Senate passed major, life-affirming legislation to prohibit abortions past 20 weeks and strengthening Arizona’s informed consent requirements. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 20-10 and now awaits a final House vote before going to Gov. Brewer.
• HB 2626 to expand Arizona’s empowerment scholarship accounts program is on the Governor’s desk.
• HB 2712, a bill to protect minors from harmful content on school and public library computers is also on the Governor’s desk.
• HB 2770 to protect the religious liberty of university professors passed the Senate 21-9 and awaits a final House vote.

Things are moving fast – follow all the legislative action on our Facebook page or our Bill Tracker.

So I’m going to clear a few things up about CAP-supported bills and other issues that have been misconstrued in the press and liberal blogs this week.

HB 2625 – This simple bill protects the religious freedom of faith-based groups and other employers. No employer should be forced by the government to pay for contraception and abortifacients in their insurance plans when doing so would violate their First Amendment protected religious beliefs. The media has falsely picked up the opponents’ outrageous claims that the bill would force women to tell employers why they are taking birth control pills. Read the bill. That claim is not in the bill.

Center for Arizona Policy does not take a position on family planning or birth control. We do, however take a very strong position that faith-based institutions and employers who hold a religious belief regarding contraception should not be compelled to violate those beliefs and pay for the medication.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Debbie Lesko has done an incredible job in numerous media interviews explaining this point, like this interview with Greta Van Sustren. Take a moment to thank Rep. Lesko by emailing her.

SB 1359 – Sponsored by Sen. Nancy Barto, this legislation is based on common sense and decency. It prohibits “wrongful life” and “wrongful birth” lawsuits. These lawsuits arise when a child is born with a disability, and the parents sue the doctor claiming that had they known their child had a disability, they would have had an abortion.

These lawsuits endorse the viewpoint that the life of a disabled child is worth less than the life of a child without a disability. Imagine what the children of the parents who file these lawsuits must feel when they get older and find out that their parents sued because they wish they would have had an abortion.

The attacks on this bill have truly been far-fetched. Some blogs claimed that this bill would allow doctors to knowingly withhold information from parents. Untrue. This bill does nothing to protect doctors that cause harm to preborn children, withhold information, or are grossly negligent.

Bullying, Part Two. Perhaps you’ve seen the attacks on me and CAP this week regarding the anti-bullying legislation I wrote about last week. I’ve been called a “legislative terrorist” and I’m sure a few other names by the time you read this.

While most of the attacks do not warrant a response, I do want to address one false statement made by State Senator David Schapira. He has claimed multiple times that I said SB 1462 is a “back door gay bill, no pun intended.” I would never say something so crass. Sen. Schapira – disagree with me if you want. But stop telling lies about what I supposedly said.

Click here to see a Channel 12 news clip attacking us for our position then click here to read the statement I issued to the press in response.

Pornographers coming to Arizona? – Several of you have written me recently about the California pornography industry threatening to come to Arizona because of new regulations in Los Angeles.

What wasn’t mentioned is the huge roadblock in their way: filming pornography in Arizona violates our prostitution laws.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery sent a clear message to pornographers this week when he released a statement explaining how virtually all of those involved in pornography could be subject to felony charges:

Under Arizona law, anyone paid to appear in a pornographic movie may be guilty of the crime of prostitution, which carries mandatory jail time as well as the possibility of other penalties. Furthermore, anyone involved in other aspects of producing pornographic movies, including soliciting individuals to appear, collecting a fee from the monies received by individuals solicited to appear by virtue of an agent relationship, transporting individuals from California to Arizona for the purpose of appearing in a pornographic movie, and/or establishing a venue for the filming and/or production of pornographic movies may be guilty of committing one or several felonies in the state of Arizona. Accordingly, Arizona law precludes the establishment of a “pornography industry” to any degree such as that present in California.

You can read his full statement here. After you read it, take a moment to thank Mr. Montgomery for standing up to the pornography industry.

Join us for CAP Family Dinner in Tucson on March 21 and Scottsdale on March 22.

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