By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona elected officials continue to react to Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs’ recent Executive Orders.
Earlier this week, Governor Hobbs signed two Executive Orders to “restore rights and protect LGBTQ+ Arizonans.” According to Hobbs’ Office, the Orders “ensure the state employee health care plan covers medically-necessary gender-affirming surgery” and bar “state agencies from funding, promoting, or supporting conversion therapy against LGBTQ+ Arizonans.”
Hobbs’ most-recent Executive Orders came just days after she signed another Order that would “centralize all abortion-related prosecutions under the Attorney General to ensure differences in applications of the law by county attorneys do not restrict access to legal abortions.”
On Wednesday, Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope issued the following statement regarding the governor’s latest Orders: “Instead of helping families struggling to keep a roof over their heads, fill their tanks with gas and put food on the table, Governor Hobbs is making sure taxpayer dollars are instead going towards elective, sex change surgeries. The Governor continues to show just how tone deaf and out of touch she is with the majority of hard-working Arizonans. Director nominations hearings were suspended on Monday, and yet the Governor is already doubling down with another unilateral overreach. The Arizona Senate Majority Caucus is committed to checks and balances and will be reviewing all legal options to ensure appropriate constitutional separation of powers.”
Representative John Gillette took to Twitter to pose several questions to the state’s chief executive, writing, “Hobbs Signs EO to Allow State Employees to Have Sex Change procedures paid by State Health Insurance. 1. What happens to premiums? 2. Was the contract renegotiated? 3. What other elected surgery will get covered? Will BC/BS just cancel the contract as terms changed?
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell also responded to the governor’s order on abortion prosecutions, saying, “Our current governor took an entire category of potential offenses and is attempting to prevent locally elected county attorneys from reviewing and making charging decisions on those matters. But what happens next? What happens in three-and-a-half years? What happens when another person occupies the governor’s seat and attempts this kind of power grab? What other set of offenses might a governor in the future not like and remove from local prosecutors?”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
