(LifeSiteNews) – A slate of new conservative laws went into effect in the Grand Canyon State over the weekend, including a ban on abortion at 15 weeks, several prohibitions on the most onerous restrictions of the COVID-19 era, and voting in federal elections by those who cannot prove citizenship or residency.
CBS affiliate KOLD reported that more than two dozen laws signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey took effect Saturday, among them a ban on abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy for any reason except to save a mother’s life. Other pro-life laws currently on the books include a ban on abortions sought specifically due to a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well as a complete abortion ban dating to 1901, which the June overturn of Roe v. Wade allows to be enforced once more.
Also taking effect Saturday were bans on localities imposing mask or COVID-19 vaccination mandates, a ban on requiring children to vaccinate for COVID without parental consent, a ban on city officials shutting down businesses in the name of an emergency, and a requirement to provide proof of citizenship, birthplace, and current residency to vote in federal elections.
The new voting requirement was one of dozens of measures pushed across the country to tighten election rules after the intensely controversial presidential election of 2020. Last September, a forensic audit of Arizona’s Maricopa County found an estimated 50,000 problematic votes, including 23,344 mail-in ballots cast from voters using a prior address, 5,295 from people who potentially voted in multiple counties, and more than 9,000 returned votes that were not shown as having been sent out.
As for the new COVID measures, Ducey ended his state’s emergency declaration in March 2022, crediting Arizona for having “met that challenge head on by prioritizing lives, livelihoods and individual liberties,” and declaring that that while the virus was not “completely gone,” the state now had “the experience and tools in place” to handle future developments.
An overwhelming body of evidence has established that masking and lockdowns caused significant societal harms yet failed to contain the virus while the COVID-19 vaccines have been found not to prevent transmission but are associated with an alarming number of adverse events.