Arizona GOP lawmaker lashes out at "god-haters" who criticized abortion ban prayer

State Sen. Anthony Kern prayed in tongues for an abortion ban. Now his GOP colleagues are pretending they oppose it.

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By now, you may have heard about how the all-Republican Supreme Court in Arizona effectively reinstated an 1864 law that bans abortion throughout the state. That law was written before women had the right to vote and before Arizona was even a state, but none of that mattered. The conservatives who fought for that ruling got what they wanted: permission to punish women for obtaining basic health care as well as their doctors, who now face up to five years in prison for doing their jobs. (Thank goodness the state has a Democratic governor and attorney general who have vowed not to prosecute anyone using that archaic law.) The case that the Supreme Court ruled on was brought to them by Alliance Defending Freedom, the right-wing legal group known for tearing down the wall between church and state.

You may have also heard how many Republicans, now realizing that their life-long desire to hurt women is wildly unpopular in a swing state, are backing away from the ruling, saying it’s “disappointing” or that they oppose it… even though it’s the logical result of the anti-abortion extremism pushed by conservative Christians.

But make no mistake: This is exactly what Republicans wanted.

They wanted it so badly that, the day before the decision was announced, State Sen. Anthony Kern led a prayer circle on the floor of the Senate chamber, right on the state seal, where he and his deranged buddies spoke in tongues hoping for the result they would inevitably get. (It’s not clear who took and shared the video. Articles about it cite an anonymous source.)

@ynotcaniThe day before AZ Supreme Court decides if a near total abortion ban passed in 1864 goes back into effect, Anti-abortion extremists pray in tongues on the state Senate floor. Lead by Jan 6er & Fake Elector Sen Anthony Kern. The court is deciding between two conflicting abortion bans in Arizona. A 15 week ban wqs passed in 2022 by the Republican legislature and signed by former Gov Doug Ducey and includes language that preserves the civil war era total ban in case Roe was overturned. The civil war era ban was never repealed and prohibits all abortions with no exceptions for SA. Religious extemists, including the most powerful anti-abortion anti-lgbtq org in the state the center for arizona policy, suppoet the civil war era ban. They also are funding the no campaign the hopes to defeat a voter initiative that would enshrine widely popular abortion rights into the az Constitution.

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While most of that is undecipherable Christian gibberish, Kern can be heard saying, “Let it be so, Father God… Lord, right now, we ask thee to release the presence of the Lord in the Senate chamber.” (It’s not like he was quoting Matthew 6:5-6.)

The key word here is “unintelligible.”

Is that a violation of church/state separation? Legally, no, probably not, but you can imagine the uproar if a representative of any other religion tried that shit.

After Jeanne Casteen, the executive director of Secular AZ, reposted that video (where it received much wider exposure), Kern responded by calling her and her allies “god-haters.”

Obviously, the prayer didn’t have any effect on the ruling. And the prayers didn’t stir up “god-haters.” It stirred up anyone who thinks the government ought to be run by sensible people who care about their constituents instead of lunatics who want to burn the Constitution and replace it with the KJV Bible. The problem isn’t that Kern is a Christian; it’s that he’s a Christian Nationalist who wants to appease his god instead of the people he represents.

The ruling occurred because former Republican Governor Doug Ducey expanded the state’s Supreme Court to seven justices, appointing five of them by the end of his time in office, in order to give Republicans whatever results they wanted. The Court’s 4-2 ruling occurred even after one justice recused himself from the case because his anti-abortion rhetoric was a little too public. Even the 15-week ban that the decision overturned was enacted in 2022 under Ducey and his GOP allies.

That’s not God at work. That’s the end result of a broken political system celebrated by Republicans.

Kern should know about broken political systems, too, since he was one of Arizona’s fake electors in 2020 and is currently under investigation. He’s also the sort of politician who thinks he can fix education by putting a copy of the Ten Commandments in every school. (That bill, which he sponsored, narrowly passed through both GOP-led chambers. It now sits in front of Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has not yet signed it into law or vetoed it.)

The prayer isn’t shocking. And if Republicans had total control of the state’s government, they would’ve passed a ban like this on their own without needing the justices’ help. On Wednesday, given the chance to pass a bill to undo the Court’s decision, not a single Republican chose to do so. Instead, they decided not to bring the bill to a vote, then voted to adjourn for the day so they wouldn’t have to go on the record as being anti-abortion… even though they clearly are. (Kern said the Court’s decision was “the right one, and I support their decision.”)

If there’s any bright spot to all this, it’s that Arizona voters will get the chance to legalize abortion again via a referendum on the ballot this November. If the anti-abortion extremism, mixed with religious insanity in defense of that extremism, doesn’t spur people to spend a few minutes filling out a ballot and voting against Republicans and their policies, then nothing will.

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Quick side note: At the Washington Post, the always excellent Kate Cohen writes about how the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision is a reminder that archaic laws that can be resurrected should worry all of us. After all, she writes, there are several states with laws on the books banning atheists from holding elected office. But they can’t be enforced because of a 1961 U.S. Supreme Court decision nullifying them.

Those “zombie laws,” however, can always make a comeback if a right-wing SCOTUS decides to override precedent because they feel like it.

Indeed, it’s hard to imagine anyone actually trying to bar an atheist from office — or arrest someone for adultery in any of the 16 states with anti-adultery statutes...

But, if Dobbs v. Jackson taught us anything, it’s that America could change back.

The future might lead us backward, where the zombies can attack.

…

Zombie lore is unclear on what can actually kill the undead. Sometimes, it’s sonic waves or a blood transfusion. Sometimes, it’s a bullet to the brain.

Sometimes, it has to be voters rising up out of fear for their rights.

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