Do 'Arizona values' really require Gov. Ducey to punish rape victims and transgender children?

It was a good week in Arizona for the Center for Arizona Policy’s Cathi Herrod.

For victims of rape and incest and for transgender children, not so much.

So now Gov. Doug Ducey has some decisions to make.

Will he sign a bill that outlaws abortion after 15 weeks, forcing even girls and women who have been raped to carry the results of that assault for six months?

Will he sign a bill that bars transgender 12-year-olds from playing on the girls intramural basketball team because they may all someday grow up to be Lia Thomas?

Arizona already has restrictive abortion laws

Herrod is banking on it. She’s the unofficial official who runs the state of Arizona, the head of the political powerhouse for social conservatives, the Center for Arizona Policy.

And today, she’s one happy woman.

“The passage of these bold bills displays the courage of Arizona lawmakers to sponsor and stand for much needed legislation that addresses the critical issues of our culture today,” she said on Thursday, referring to the two bills and a third that outlaws gender reassignment surgery for minors.

Courage, or at least a willingness to focus all of your care and concern on unborn children and none on the ones already in this world.

Arizona already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation but Republican states are rushing to pass strict new 15-week bans, in anticipation of the Supreme Court allowing a Mississippi law to stand.

Senate Bill 1164 would make it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion that isn’t medically necessary after 15 weeks. It makes no exception for women who have been raped or victims of incest (an exception Ducey has previously said he supports.)

The bill was sent to Ducey on Thursday after it cleared the House (as it did earlier in the Senate) on a party-line vote.

Why not protect the lives of transgender girls?

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, on Thursday proclaimed it a “victory for Arizona values.”

“The state has an obligation to protect life, and that is what this bill is about,” she said last month, as the Senate debated the bill.

Just not, apparently, the lives of rape victims or transgender girls.

SB 1165 would bar any transgender girl from playing on any girls’ team at a public school or at any private school that competes against public schools. They’d be banned even from playing girls’ intramural sports.

It also cleared the House on a party-line vote on Thursday and headed to Ducey’s desk.

This is another Barto bill, one that she claims will create “a level playing field” in women’s sports.

It was a given that the bill would pass. This is an election year, after all, and putting the scare into voters that transgender 12-year-olds are gunning for your kid’s future by stealing away their college scholarship is a surefire vote winner.

“This bill protects our daughters and our granddaughters,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said earlier this year, during a hearing on the bill. “It’s absolute lunacy to think that it’s OK to allow a male to dominate in a female sport.”

AIA already has a solution for these cases

There is a problem there.

Look no further than University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is obliterating school and national records while competing on the women’s swim team. Last week, she became the first transgender woman to win a Division I national championship.

It seems unfair.

But is the answer then to just bar all transgender girls of all ages from all sports?

All to solve a problem that doesn’t exist in this state?

The Arizona Interscholastic Association already has the issue handled, deciding on a case-by-case basis whether transgender student athletes can play on high school teams.

In all, about a dozen transgender athletes have applied to compete over the last 10 to 12 years, according to AIA lobbyist Barry Aarons. Seven have been approved.

None have posed a problem.

Why bar all from competing just to address a few?

You know what is a problem? Suicide rates among transgender teens, struggling to figure out how and where they fit in.

More than half of all transgender youth in the U.S. seriously contemplated killing themselves in 2020, according to The Trevor Project’s third annual National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

One in 5 attempted suicide.

Transgender parents pleaded with our legislators not to bar their children from playing on teams with their friends.

“This is her life,” the mother of a 10-year-old transgender daughter told legislators, “and I know she’s going to face other challenges. Playing sports with other girls should not be one of them.”

“You’re putting all these kids at risk,” warned another, who has a 17-year-old transgender daughter. “You don’t understand how hard we’re fighting just to keep our kids alive.”

Which is, of course, true.

Other GOP governors vetoed bills. Will Ducey?

Most of us don’t understand – including, I would wager, every Republican legislator who picked up a sledgehammer to solve a problem that requires a scalpel.

Including Gov. Ducey, who now holds that sledgehammer in his hand. Will he really use it to injure some of the state’s most vulnerable children?

It’s worth noting that just 7% of high school athletes go on to compete in college and only 2% compete at a Division I school, according to the NCAA.

Imagine passing a bill that would penalize little kids because one day they might – might – grow up to be among the 2%.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox apparently can’t imagine it. He became the second Republican governor this week (after Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb) to veto a transgender sports bill.

“I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting,” Cox wrote, in his veto (which was promptly overridden). “When in doubt, however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion.”

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will Gov. Doug Ducey really punish rape victims, transgender kids?