Dear Friends, A fetal personhood bill will be considered in the Arizona House Wednesday. HB2501 is another “wolf in sheep’s clothing” bill—superficially sentimental, but carrying a religious right-wing agenda. It allows pregnant people to claim an extra tax credit, claiming their unborn fetus a “dependent.” Bills like this are designed to circumvent a court’s ruling against Arizona statute explicitly defining fetuses as people from the moment of conception. Since legislators can’t encode that religious view into law directly, they’re trying to set legal precedent by passing as many bills as possible which allude to the idea. The end game, of course, is to outlaw abortion and subjugate women. What you can do: If you are a Request to Speak user, sign in against this bill and/or ask to testify in committee against it before House Ways and Means Committee meets on Jan. 25th, 9:00 AM. You can also contact committee members directly: Seth Blattman – sblattman@azleg.gov Andrés Cano – acano@azleg.gov Michael Carbone – mcarbone@azleg.gov Neal Carter – ncarter@azleg.gov Travis Grantham – tgrantham@azleg.gov Justin Heap – jheap@azleg.gov David Livingston – dlivingston@azleg.gov Jennifer Pawlik – jpawlik@azleg.gov Mariana Sandoval – msandoval@azleg.gov Austin Smith – asmith@azleg.gov If you need help with Request to Speak or need to sign up, please see resources by our friends at Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (and consider throwing them a donation for all the hard work they do to get Arizonans connected to their officials). In Solidarity, Jeanne Casteen Secular AZ | 
