Arizona Abortion Bill: Constituent Said State Rep. Terri Proud's Abortion-Watching Proposal Came From Form Email

The Arizona resident, whose routine email to her legislator resulted in a reply later called a "hodgepodge of crazy" by another lawmaker, said she is "scared" that her representative wants women to watch abortions before having the procedure.

Tucson resident Adena Bank Lees confirmed that she sent state Rep. Terri Proud (R-Tucson) an email in early March asking Proud to oppose a bill outlawing abortions in the state after 20 weeks. The email was prompted by an email blast from the pro-choice organization NARAL asking members to lobby Arizona legislators to vote against the bill.

Proud sent Bank Lees an email saying that she was supporting the bill and said that she wanted women seeking abortions to be mandated to watch an abortion first. That response touched off a series of emails between Bank Lees and Proud, including one sarcastic reply from Proud.

"I expected a form email back like I got from everyone else," Bank Lees told HuffPost. "I was shocked, I felt violated. It was angry and hateful. I had to write her back."

Proud's email to Bank Lees, dated March 5 and sent from her state email account read:

Personally I'd like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a "surgical procedure". If it's not a life it shouldn't matter, if it doesn't harm a woman then she shouldn't care, and don't we want more transparency and education in the medical profession anyway? We demand it everywhere else. Until the dead child can tell me that she/he does not feel any pain - I have no intentions of clearing the conscience of the living - I will be voting YES.

Bank Lees said she contacted Proud's Phoenix office to confirm the email and said a woman named Sue told her that Proud had asked her to send that response to anyone who emailed asking her to oppose the abortion bill. The electronic signature on the emails Bank Lees provided to HuffPost identify Proud's assistant as Sue Adams.

Voicemails left for Proud and Adams at Proud's Phoenix office have not been returned. Bank Lees emailed Proud back saying that she expected a better response from her legislator.

I am speechless at your response to my email below.

To speak to a constituent of yours in this manner is unacceptable, unprofessional and unethical. Your response also does not address the request and the bill up for vote. I feel sad and afraid that you appear to be violently against women, children and families who are in tragic situations.

To live in this state and have a representative who believes and behaves the way you do is embarrassing and frightening.

Proud replied to Bank Lees' response on the morning of March 8 with three words.

"You're kidding right?" Proud wrote from her state email.

Bank Lees said she is baffled by the whole exchange, and did not know who to contact to handle it, finally reaching out to the media. Proud's abortion-watching proposal touched off a firestorm among Arizona Democrats: Rep. Matt Heinz (D-Tucson) called the email a "hodgepodge of crazy" and Minority Leader Chad Campbell (D-Phoenix) said that Proud was "going off the deep end."

Proud issued a statement this week regarding her email.

"For too long, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry have placed selling abortions above the health and safety of women," Proud said in the statement. "My message to a constituent last week emphasized my concerns with how abortion providers have not been honest with women about the realities of abortion, and the short and long-term risks of this dangerous surgical procedure."

Bank Lees has her own opinion of Proud.

"This woman is scary," she said. "She claims that she is not a politician but a representative and can voice her opinions whatever way she likes. She has a responsibility as a public servant to treat the people who vote respectfully."

Comments

[kateslate]

06:24 PM on 04/14/2012

Neither side is going to change the other side's minds and too much time, money and passion is wasted in this fight. Abortion will never be eradicated. There will always be women who do not want to be pregnant and will stop their pregnancy by safe, legal or dangerous and illegal means. The right needs to accept that.

What can we do to reduce the need for abortion? Common sense solutions involve the economy and include access to contraception. Social conservatives cannot stop people from having recreational sex and you cannot legislate morality. AND anybody who thinks a woman or girl who is raped should actually be forced to carry that pregnancy to term is just plain nuts. On the other hand, I also wish all anti-abortion people would watch the stories of the heartbroken women who really wanted that baby, but the baby was destined for a short suffering life.

Pre-biblical accounts of abortion exist and we cannot even look to the constitution to guide us. At that time men did not much concern themselves with women's reproductive health, and there were midwives who stopped pregnancies using anything from herbs to physical intrusion into the woman's body.

Both sides need to work on a solution to make abortion rare, safe and legal. It will never be eradicated. Women will find a way to end an unwanted pregnancy, no matter what, and when it is illegal, too many die trying and too many children are left motherless.

[margoharris]

02:42 AM on 08/24/2012

But to win the argument they think that they can just li e. They are fanatics, extremists. This is not a political party it is a ideological and religious movement and not fit to govern. Democrats may not be perfect but they are not freakingnutz.

[TruEngineHearing]

10:26 AM on 08/24/2012

I share your view.

[FireflyClass88]

11:02 PM on 04/10/2012

Did someone mention to Proud that safe, legal abortions have a lower death rate than childbirth? Anyone?

Planned Parenthood does not "sell abortions". They make them available and safe-how it should be! It's not like a freaking ipod held up on display with a sales rep walking around trying to get a person to buy it. Compared to all the other health services Planned Parenthood offers, abortion is in the minority by far.

Hey, Proud, here's something: if you're going to declare war and send young men and women off to fight and die in a foreign country, I think you should have to go to that foreign country and watch it happen up close. If you're going to limit access to abortion, you should have to watch all the tragic, botched abortions that occur in third world nations all over the world. Watch the results of that and have a taste of your own medicine you slag.

You "pro-life" hypocrites disgust me. You're not pro-life, you're pro-embryo/fetus/zygote...basically you're pro-unborn. But once someone is born, you really couldn't care less what happens to him/her.

[margoharris]

02:48 AM on 08/24/2012

'The republicans have been taken over by the fringees. Fringees+Ayn Ryan+And that whole Mor_mon world domination thingy=Vote for Barack Obama & Democrats because they are notnutz.

[psnyder325]

06:44 AM on 03/28/2012

The problem with a Republic is that, once people are elected, they do not HAVE to vote the way the people want them to. So, in a way, this rude, crude and socially unacceptable legislator is correct....she does not HAVE to listen to her constituents. Of course, she can be voted out, impeached or recalled if AZ has a recall law. This is why it is SO important to vote for someone who clearly shares Progressive views and NOT put in any Republicans. Arizona, Texas and Florida have become pariahs to most Americans. I certainly won't do business or tourism in any of those states.

[margoharris]

02:50 AM on 08/24/2012

But to have a majority we have to have blue dogs.

[mjtaylor22]

06:05 PM on 03/26/2012

A government small enough to fit in a woman’s uterus..And big enough to make sure you watch an abortion video before getting this private medical procedure.

[skiweed02]

05:44 PM on 03/26/2012

"health care providers not be honest"? Really, didn't they pass a law that allow doctors to LIE to the patients to discourage abortions?

[kevingiampa]

05:29 PM on 03/26/2012

I believe that a woman should required to perform abortions before receiving one of her own.

That'll teach 'em.

[kevinbaja]

08:50 PM on 03/27/2012

great ! NOW you have given them new ''ideas''..........!
(then afterwards, prosecute them for practicing medicine without a license......WIN/WIN !)

[pdxbuckeye]

05:08 PM on 03/29/2012

sweat equity

[KB55]

05:10 PM on 03/26/2012

what a freaky looking woman!!! It is scary just to look at her!!~!

[Chipper1]

04:48 PM on 03/26/2012

I don't get it. Republicans say they want the govt. out of their private lives but then they support truly invasive laws that make govt. into Big brother. What do they really want? Less government or bigger, more intrusive government? Tell me. This makes no sense.

[bamtex]

12:47 PM on 03/28/2012

Bingo. But ask their supporters and they'll swear up and down it makes sense, and then repeat the BS lies like Obamacare has death panels for the elderly. Makes you wonder, huh?

[Virtual Deux]

04:42 PM on 03/26/2012

Hey if women have to watch this, I say men should too. After all, in most cases it takes two. So buckets for both and save that bile to send to your senator as proof you have done as asked.

[onewhothinks]

04:25 PM on 03/26/2012

So should women be forced to watch c-sections being performed before getting them? Should we have to watch a heart transplant before getting one? Should we have to watch brain surgery before getting it? No. I wouldn't want to look at the gaping hole during a heart transplant, but that doesn't mean there's an ethical problem with it.

[psnyder325]

06:47 AM on 03/28/2012

Personally, I'd love to see videos of surgery. My hand doctor let me watch while he repaired a tendon (under a local). But, then, I'm strange that way. No someone should not be forced to watch a video of a surgical procedure before having one.....this is just one more underhanded trick in the right wingers' push against women's rights. But they justify it by saying that they're "saving the life of a child." Christians can justify ANYTHING from their Baaable.

[Joshua Grisenthwaite]

04:12 PM on 03/26/2012

I absolutely love that 90% of anti-abortion wackadoos are what can only be described as 'Penised Americans'. It's time women made their voices heard and the best time to do that is from now 'til November!

[CiCi Reagan]

04:10 PM on 03/26/2012

does the man who impregnated her have to watch too? Anyone care about him? No, of course not. these men are disgusting enough, but the women who back them- despicable.

[helmboy]

03:38 PM on 03/26/2012

I am waiting for the bill where conservative men are required to watch an abortion from the inside. The 'head up a vagina' bill. You know its coming.

[Kenz300]

03:28 PM on 03/26/2012

Will you organize against the Republican War on Women ?

Come out to a rally in your state on April 28.

http://www.unitewomen.org/

[Larry Motuz]

03:22 PM on 03/26/2012

I am asking all Republicans to launch a hunger strike on this issue, vowing not to eat until abortions are made illegal.

That would be nice come November.

[notakochdealer]

05:20 PM on 03/26/2012

Lol, great idea. What do you say repubs,? It's for a good cause.