NAACP files suit against Arizona for bill they say unfairly targets women of color

NAACP files suit against Arizona for bill they say unfairly targets women of color

From Your Black World

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the NAACP of Maricopa County, calling into question the legality of a state law that uses stereotypes to discriminate against Black and Asian Pacific Islander women who end pregnancies.

The law, HB 2443, requires that those seeking abortions to sign documents saying they’re not terminating a pregnancy because of the fetus’ race or s*x.

“This law takes the personal and private health care decisions of women of color and exploits them for political gain,” said ACLU staff attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas in the lawsuit. “But our Constitution flatly prohibits states from passing laws based on racist stereotypes.”

Supporters of the law cited higher abortion rates among Black women as an indication that Black women were motivated by discriminatory intent to prevent the birth of Black children or were being fooled by a racist plot.

“Every woman, regardless of her race, should be able to make the best decision for her circumstances, whether that decision is to continue the pregnancy and parent, place the child for adoption, or terminate the pregnancy,” said the Rev. Oscar Tillman, president of the NAACP of Maricopa County. “We trust Black women to make important health care decisions for themselves and their families and vigorously object to the idea that they do not do so thoughtfully, or that they do so out of animus to their own communities.”

The report also linked the abortion rate among Asian women with the gender selection of Chinese children, even though there is no correlation.