And now let’s turn to the state Legislature and a look ahead at some of the bills on the docket this week.
And for that, we turn to Capitol Media Services’ Howie Fischer — who’s got his eye on it all.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: us. All right, so let's start start with a look ahead at the state Capitol this week with abortion restrictions. There is a bill up this week that would make it illegal to send or receive abortion inducing drugs by mail.
And this comes as Republican lawmakers have moved forward with some other measures, right, with kind of outside aims at restricting abortions, it looks like even after voters here pretty overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion rights, right?
FISCHER: Right, exactly. And that becomes the question because as you remember, Prop. 139 says there is a fundamental right of women to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, which is, you know, 22 to 24 weeks. But lawmakers who are opposed to abortion keep looking for ways to say, well, yes, but. And so there have been several bills.
For example, [Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel's] bill this year says you can't send abortion drugs to through the mail. Now this goes to the very question that is facing a trial court judge, and we're waiting on a ruling perhaps next 30 days in terms of, is telemedicine allowed for abortions? In other words, if you've got a woman who is living, let's say up in Kingman, does she have to in fact travel to Phoenix or Tucson to get a medication abortion?
And the only way she can do that, of course, if she's not traveling is to get it the mail. So Rep. Keshel is seeking to do that. The argument is, well, this protects women's health. That gets to the larger argument of is in fact the mifeprestone a dangerous drug. In fact, Rep. Keshel is also behind the measure to get voters to take another look at Prop. 139, say, well, we really didn't mean it.
So look for this to keep going until we go back to the ballot next time.
GILGER: Yeah, certainly not the last we've heard on that front.
OK, let's take a bit of a left turn, Howie, and talk about some proposed legislation than one bill, in fact about lab-grown meat. What's this all about?
FISCHER: Lab-grown meat, it just sounds so appetizing. The fact is that there are some companies who are manufacturing it right now. You can get lab-grown chicken, in fact, at a couple of restaurants in Washington, D.C., and New York.
And lab-grown meat is exactly what it sounds to me. You take some cells and you cultivate them in a lab and you add some enzymes and such and you have meat, which might be very ideal for people who like the taste of meat but don't like idea of butchering an animal.
There are two bills out there. One of them, by Rep. Lupe Diaz, would ban the sale entirely. He said, I don't think it's right. And anyway, it goes against our ranchers here. You know, they need to sell something that's, that's been butchered.
GILGER: Sure.
FISCHER: Rep. Quang Nguyen, however, says, wait a second. If you're hungry, and here's a guy who, you know, grew up in Vietnam and was a refugee. He said, look, if you put some lab-grown meat in front of me, I'd be more than happy to eat it. People should be able to eat it.
What they should know is what's in it and whether it's lab grown or if it's fact, you know, something that came off of an actual living animal.
So there'll be a couple of hearings on that this week and we'll see what lawmakers are willing to do. I think that an outright man is probably not going to happen. You know, letting people know, that's, that's more likely to happen.
GILGER: Yeah. All right, we'll watch and see there.
One thing on the agenda, Howie, that I thought was really interesting is a bill that would force businesses to accept cash, like for purchases of less than $100 or so. But, but this comes as we're seeing a lot more restaurants, businesses saying, you know, we're cashless.
FISCHER: Right, exactly. And that's become the question. They're going cashless for a couple of reasons. Number one is security. Number two, quite frankly, is the fact that we don't have any pennies out there. And so if you're forced to round up and round down, now you're going ahead and saying, oh, how are we going to do that?
And so the question becomes, should the state be in a position of telling a business, here's what you have to accept. In some ways, this is very similar to a bill that says some people have to accept cryptocurrency. Those bills haven't gone very far yet.
But it's a good question. What is the right of the lawmaker to tell a business what do you have to accept?
There are a lot of folks out there who say, as you point out, we don't want to handle cash. Cash, in fact, is literally dirty. You have a dollar bill that's gone around and around and around. And if you thought COVID was dangerous, let me tell you, handle some of those dollar bills.
So this is one of those very tight things in terms of, who are we protecting here? Are we protecting the consumer, or are we protecting businesses and their right to decide how to take payments?
GILGER: Interesting. OK, last thing we'll be able to hit on this morning, Howie. A few laws being considered this week that are aimed at trans people, particularly trans kids. One would make all gender transition for minors illegal. Another deals with bathrooms for transgender folks. What else is on the docket?
FISCHER: That's pretty much the broad period of it. Obviously, we have a law that actually took effect in 2022 about transgender boys, excuse me, transgender girls participating in girls sports. That's been challenged in court. It's been partially overturned. They're trying to beef that up.
You know, bathrooms are a perennial issue. You know, who gets to go in what bathroom, what locker rooms, and then you have the pronoun bill. In other words, if I my kid goes to school and my kid is named, you know, Sophia, and Sophia wants to be called Michael, does the teacher have to accept that? Which becomes definitely an issue.
And then you've got, as you point out, the question of medical treatment. The Legislature several years ago banned surgery, transgender surgery on minors, saying, you know, this is sort of irreversible, but left open the door to hormone treatments.
And so the question now is, should you outlaw hormone treatments, or should that be a decision of the parents? And now you get into the medical rights of parents versus what the Legislature says is OK.
GILGER: And we've seen a lot of debate on that. Are you expecting some, you know, protests and people at the Capitol asking some tough questions?
FISCHER: Oh, I think there'll be a lot of people asking questions in terms of, you know. There are folks who do not believe that transgender people actually exist, that it's simply a mental health problem. On the other side, you get transgender people showing up and say, "well, I am here, you know. Why are you ignoring me as a person?"
-
A pair of education groups are proposing a ballot initiative to rein in Arizona's universal school voucher program — which has ballooned to a nearly billion-dollar-a-year expense since first approved in 2022. -
A new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that the state can’t stop “advanced practice clinicians” — like nurse practitioners — from performing abortions in Arizona. -
Conservationists argue that delisting should be based on the population, genetic diversity and long-term viability of the wolves, as required under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. -
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors voted Friday to refer County Attorney Brad Miller to the state Attorney General’s Office for alleged misuse of public money and resources, and failure to retain public records. -
Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a new law permanently moving Arizona’s primary elections up from August to the second-to-last Tuesday in July.
