The Arizona Legislature is one step closer to tackling a serious problem that doesn't actually exist.

Today, the House reportedly gave initial approval to a bill that would require women getting an abortion to sign a document promising they aren't aborting the pregnancy based on sex, and another promising they aren't aborting their pregnancy based on race. Under the proposed law, anyone caught doing so could be slapped with a class-three felony.

The bill is the product of Representative Steve Montenegro, who, as we've pointed out in prior posts, apparently thinks he represents a district in China -- where aborting babies based on sex or race might actually be a problem.

Nobody wants to see a baby aborted for either of those reasons -- if those sort of things were actually happening in Arizona, which they're not.

"There is no indication that this is even an issue," Planned Parenthood Arizona spokeswoman Cynde Cerf told New Times earlier this month.

Rather, this is just a symbolic waste of time (and taxpayer money) Cerf feels the bill "is just to further damage the reputations of women who get an abortion."



"This bill is trying to create the impression that women and families have abortions based on race or sex," she continues.

A hearing for a different abortion bill that was supposed to be heard today, which would require abortion doctors to offer patients the opportunity to look at ultrasound images of the fetus, and adds stiffer regulations to abortion-by-pill procedures, has been postponed.