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Arizona State Capitol Press Conference. Equal Opportunity to Life Act.
Brothers and sisters, could I have you draw near, come near. Thank you very much. I want to officially welcome everybody to this great gathering, this rally for life. Amen. Amen. How many know we serve a God and creator who has blessed us with physical life and through his son, Jesus Christ, has granted all those who believe eternal life in his son.
And so we want to acknowledge him. We want to come before his throne of grace to obtain mercy and help in this great time of need in the history of the United States of America. Will you join me in prayer?
Heavenly father, thank you. Though you are almighty God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, you have blessed your people with the most intimate of terms. We can call you father. And you're not an abusive father.
You're not a father who abandons his responsibilities. You're a father who loves, who disciplines, who cares. And we're so grateful for this relationship that we have through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, we consecrate this time.
We consecrate this great effort to your kingdom and to your glory. We thank you for this privilege to lift high the holy name of Jesus Christ, before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of the father.
Lord, regardless of the direction this nation may take, be it known to the powers that be that our faith and our commitment to Christ is non-negotiable. It is not for sale. And father, I pray by this gathering here today, that it would be known to the principalities and the powers that we will not be intimidated, that we will not fear, but we will put our faith and trust in God.
And we will declare this day that our duty is to God and the results belong to him. So father, have your way. Lord Jesus, I pray for your mantle and your anointing to rest upon each speaker here today.
That it won't be artificial, Lord, that it will come straight from heaven through our hearts and through our lips. And we will declare the truth because it's only truth. That's the only thing that you have granted to this earth that can liberate us from the lies of the evil one who has come to kill, steal, and to destroy.
So Lord, we humble ourselves before you this day. We resist the devil and according to your promise, he will flee. Here we stand. We can do no less. And we pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus and all the saints said, amen.
God bless you, saints. Welcome.
So we thank you for coming to this press conference. The rally will begin following at 11 o 'clock. And I want to ask you to join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I now want to ask Roosevelt to come sing the national anthem for us. Walt will then do the press conference and Roosevelt will sing rise for us before the rally.
Oh say what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o 'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming. Good morning, everybody.
How are you doing? Good.
Aren't we blessed today? Yes. Heavenly Father has certainly put his hands on all of us this day. And we should be reminded of this when we go home this evening and we kneel down by our beds and when we thank him for giving us the strength and the courage to do this.
And that we look at our children and we thank him for the wonderful gift that he has given us. So we'll go ahead and start with the press conference. I want to thank Roosevelt for her beautiful lyrics of that wonderful song that we swore to defend.
And these gentlemen back here actually have done the work. They have worked tirelessly over this bill. And I am just grateful that I'm able to carry it for them. So what are the questions? I don't see the media.
Are there questions? We're the media. Oh, we're the media. So what are your questions about the bill since we're talking to the people that it matters most to and those unborn? What are your questions?
Yeah, that's a good question. So what I'm going to do then is I'll just turn it over to Jeff. And yes, ma 'am. Yes ma 'am. Yes, ma 'am. So the question was the process of how that bill is ran. So months ago, the bill was drafted to meet Arizona statute because we have to follow the Constitution here in this state.
After the bill was drafted and it was a copy sent to me, I then turned it in to Ledge Council, which is Legislative Affairs Council. And they make sure that it meets all the requirements of the Arizona statute, the criminal code, which is embedded in the bill.
And then once that bill is done, it's a lot of back and forth emails and discussions, late night discussions. I turn that bill in. So yesterday at 5 o 'clock, which was the deadline for legislation for this session, I turned that bill in, which gave it an official bill number.
What that does is the bill no longer belongs to me or the drafters. It belongs to the state of Arizona. Now, the state of Arizona has the responsibility to do a couple of things with that bill. It starts out in this chamber right here.
The bill is heard by a first read, and the speaker will sit on the dais and give the first read. After the first read, it goes through a second read. And that second read is to assign it to a committee.
Now, this bill could go to a couple of committees. This bill could either go to Judiciary because we are talking about the criminal code. It could go to Health because we are talking about the status of an unborn child.
It could go on many different avenues, if you will. After it goes through the committee, the committee chair will either review the bill and allow it to be heard in their committee or not. If they reviewed the bill and they said, yes, we need to hear this bill in the committee, the bill is heard in committee.
And the committee comprised of Republicans and Democrats, and since we own the majority, we have more Republicans on the committee than we would have Democrats, the bill gets passed in committee. Once the bill is passed in committee, then it is ready for the committee of the whole.
Just think of Cal. And that is when we are all on the floor and the bill comes up on the board for debate, our amendments. We are not going to amend this bill. This is a perfect bill. I just want to tell you that right now.
We are not going to amend this bill. After the bill is debated and the majority, which are Republicans, 31 to 29, we vote on the bill and then the bill is passed in this chamber. Then it goes next door and the process is started all over.
The only thing they don't do is rewrite the bill. So the bill is scheduled to be heard, first read, second read, goes to the committees and that's the process. Now, when all that works out, because I have faith in God, that it will fight its way through here and through here, it goes to the executive.
At Schoolhouse Rock, we know that the executive signs or vetoes the bill. And that's the process. You can go to www .azledge .gov and it will have the webpage of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
All you need to do to follow this bill in real time, click on my name, Walt Blackman, black man, I'm just saying some folks, what's your name again? You click on that and my profile of bills will come up and you can follow that bill in real time and you can also stream in to the processes of the hearings and on the floor.
Okay? Yes, sir. As soon as the governor signs it. It depends on the process, how long it takes to get through the chambers. So typically, a bill, let's talk about a bill that has no resistance, pretty much.
I say I drop that bill Monday, it could actually get through the process in two weeks if there's no resistance and based on the calendar of the chairs and their committees to run those bills. So most chairs will see a priority bill and they'll move it up to the front to hear it and then I call it fast tracking, but there's another term for it, but I call it fast tracking.
So this bill, this bill is going to take a minute to get through because there's going to be a lot of debate and the debate is going to come from, hey, there's my campaign manager. Josh. Josh. Everybody give Josh a hand.
He's a little shy. He's a little shy. So it just, oh, and there's, this is my, this is my mother from another mother, Darlene Yonker. She's also on my, and Dean. Oh my goodness. Everybody's here. Holy smokes.
Wow. I'm sorry. I didn't see y 'all before. Oh my goodness. So this bill is going to have some resistance, of course. The debate is going to primarily come from a couple of organizations, going to come from Planned Parenthood.
Okay. It's going to come from Planned Parenthood. It's going to come from the other side of the aisle, the Democrats that are against this type of legislation. And I will just remind those folks pleasantly and politely that it's funny that people are for abortion are already alive.
So do, yes, ma 'am. Same as homicide. It's a criminal code. The criminal, thank you. And I, and Jeff is a subject matter expert on that. I'm letting him talk about that. However, being criminal justice reform, I am the chair for criminal justice reform.
Criminal justice is also about protecting life in Arizona. That is also reform. This is a piece of legislation that protects not only children that will be born tomorrow, but in the future. And that protects Arizona.
Yes, ma 'am. Sign petitions. Exactly what you're doing right now. There's a petition right there and there. Yes, sir. Excuse me. To make sure the bill goes through or defending the bill? Oh, okay. So, so my challenge is to call up all my army buddies that I served with in Iraq.
And there are a couple of M1A2 tanks that, no, somebody's going to, somebody will take that out of context. Rep Blackman is going to get in his tank and defend this abortion bill. It's a good photo op.
So the strategy, the strategy to get this bill across is number one, to these folks that are debating whether or not this bill should become law. That's a conversation between them and God. This bill, the strategy is to put in the minds of lawmakers, the conscience of doing the right thing.
That's the strategy. Okay. Now, what we're talking about as a legislator, I have a lot of strategies that I'm going to use, but if I tell you out loud, I give away my secret. But if you want to talk in private, we can do that.
But I have set to ground a method to make sure this bill moves. Okay. All right. So, the chairs are all Republican. So if we look at the platform of the Republican Party, that platform is to fight abortion.
So if those chairs are truly for fighting abortion and abolishing it instead of regulating it, they will be for it. It's real easy to me that Republicans who stand on that platform will do this. But this is, and I love this bill, this is the type of bill that makes everyone stand alone and answer for their decisions on life or death, regardless of what side of the aisle you're on.
So I'm hoping those, thank you, I'm hoping those chairs do that.
Yes. Who are some of the sponsors already on the bill? Okay. I don't have the names of the sponsors.
The sponsors are folks that agree with the bill. Okay. You go online right now to that website I gave you, the bill will come up and the sponsor's names will come up underneath the bill. It'll say, I introduced the bill and the sponsors are all Republicans that wanted to get on the board.
But the best way to figure out who sponsors this bill is the ones who vote green on the board. So when the bill comes to the floor and it goes across the finish line, those are the people that support this piece of legislation.
That's at the end of the day. Yes, sir. The number of the bill, 2650, I have a lot of bills out too, so I'm like, yeah, I just got the number last night. We just got the bill assigned last night. Okay.
Any other questions? And I'll turn it over to Jeff. Oh, okay. Let me read the sponsors. I got to put my glasses on because when I was in the army, they said I needed to have an eye exam and I was able to see.
And when I walked out, they said, you can't see. So that helps me at home because when I make a mess, Christie says, didn't you see that mess? I can't see. Okay. Okay. So, um, the sponsors of this bill, um, are representative Barton, who is a representative from LD six.
She's my seatmate representative Bia Succi, who is the majority leader in the house of representatives representative Bullock, who is the chair of ways and means representative who is a new member representative Carol, who is the chair of transportation, uh, representative cook, who is a rural representative representative Fillmore who, uh, does a lot with schools, representative Hoffman, who is a new representative and representative Toma, excuse me, a representative Ben Toma is the majority leader and representative Bia Succi is the majority whip.
So we have leadership on this bill. Okay. So, you know, the app that swipes out pictures and stuff, if you get your app, just swipe out the glasses. Yes. Yes, sir. It's the same as somebody commits the crime of murder.
That's it. That's that. It's the same thing. If somebody, if somebody is performing an abortion after the, after it's law, it's a, it's a, it's a murder. It's, it's, it's treated as a homicide case. Any more questions for me before I turn it over?
Okay. I'm going to turn it over right now. Thank you all.
Welcome everybody. Thank you guys for coming. So the issue at stake here is equal protection for all human life. Abortion is murder and it's important for us to actually uphold justice in our state. We have been under the tyranny of the murder of innocent preborn children since Roe.
If you didn't know, Arizona state law has a statute that has criminalized abortion for a long period of time. It's still on the books. Abortion is against the law in the state of Arizona currently. There is a fiction that has been spun for a long time in our country and in our states and communities.
And that is Roe versus Wade created a law that made abortion, the murder of children legal. It didn't. And if you want proof of that in terms of what people understand and know who are at the top, you can listen to president Joe Biden.
That's so hard to say that president Joe Biden's, uh, town hall he had before the election. He was asked the question about what would happen if Barrett tried to overturn Roe versus Wade. And what he said to that person asking the question is that what we need to do if he becomes president is we need to give Roe versus Wade the force of law.
We need to create legislation to make abortion the law of the land. What's that tell you? Roe versus Wade is a fallacious, easily demonstrable, fallacious court opinion from a long time ago, decades ago.
And it states that what's in the womb is potential human life. It is a matter of biblical and therefore true fact and knowledge that what's in the womb is an image of God is in the image of God. It deserves our protection.
It deserves human dignity, value, equal protection. And as in terms of biological science, the only distinction between all of us, every human being from the moment of conception to where you're at now is the difference of degree.
All, and this needs to be stated again, all biological science demonstrates irrefutably that what's in the womb from the moment of conception is human. So this ought not be a controversial bill, equal protection for all human beings.
And in terms of those who would resist a bill of equal protection for all human beings, I think they need to do an internal critique of their system. This last year, we've heard a lot of discussion about lives mattering.
This bill is the foundation of that statement. If any lives matter, they need to be protected from the moment of conception. All lives need to be protected in the womb from conception. So again, this need not be a controversial bill.
It ought to be something all of us as image bearers of God and God's glorious world understands. What's in the womb is worthy of our protection. It is worthy of our love, our care, our concern, and our compassion.
And I want to challenge everybody who looks at a bill like this in terms of people who would profess to be pro-life, I want to challenge you to be courageous. Be courageous, do the right thing before God, and do the right thing for the citizens of the state of Arizona.
Protect all human life. If we don't protect lives in the womb, then no lives matter ever. So again, this is not a personhood argument. That's a losing battle. Because it's easy for people to become subjective in that discussion.
Well, is it worthy of our protection if it has a heartbeat, can it breathe yet, is it dependent upon the mother, those sorts of questions. This is a question of humanity. If it's human, it deserves our love, care, value, protection, and it deserves dignity.
And we need to protect it. Again, the only difference between what's in the womb from the moment of conception to where we're all at today is size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependence.
We can't kill human beings because they don't look human to us. They said that about Jews, and they said that about black people. We can't kill human beings because we argue, well, it's just a clump of cells.
Welcome to a collection of clumps of cells today. Brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors, my community, we will defend the pre-born in this state, and we will establish justice for human beings in the womb.
Abortion is murder, and it's time for us to abandon the failed pro-life industry's pursuit of ending abortion in terms of not calling it a crime. If it isn't a crime, it will not be protected. We're not going to ever stop theft.
People are going to steal, but we can protect victims of theft, and we can stop and hold back people who would steal by making it a crime so that people are protected. We cannot say, yes, abortion is wrong, it's murder, but we shouldn't call it a crime.
It'll never be ended, friends. Abortion needs to be treated as the unjustified taking of human life. That is a definition that cannot be resisted. It is the unjustified taking of human life. Therefore, it is murder, and this Equal Protection Act treats it as such.
Good morning. Man, it's so good to see all of you out here fighting for the unborn. Thank you for coming. My name is Dennis Sarfate. I am the president of Red State Reform, Action for Life, the signs you see.
Action for Life, the signs you see, is a project that we are engaged in right now to abolish abortion, not just here in Arizona, but across the United States. Amen. You've heard Representative Blackmun speak on the bill itself.
You've heard Pastor Jeff just say the church's response and how we engage it that way. We have to understand something. Arizona law already says that abortion is a crime, that it is murder. So what's the next step?
The next step is to provide equal protection for human life. We have to do this. It's important. We have law enforcement that don't really, it's murky details. They don't know what's right, what's wrong.
We have faithful Christians, many of them who are here, go out to the abortion mills, getting the cops called them for noise ordinances or putting a foot on the property line and trespassing. All along, while the doctors inside that building are dismembering baby parts and murdering children, it has to stop.
It has to stop today. It should have stopped a long time ago. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said, not only do the states have the right, but they have the obligation to end abortion. This is not a Supreme Court matter.
This is not the president. This is a local magistrate, men like Walt Blackman right here, who are fighting for the unborn and doing what is right. In the state of Arizona, 30 babies a day are murdered.
30 babies that deserve breath and life like we all have here. 30 babies like my wife got the chance. That's right. My wife, her biological parents were a young couple. They had a one night stand, and they were the perfect couple for an abortion.
But they chose the right thing, and now my wife is here raising our three girls. And I thank God every day for that opportunity. So we gotta fight, and it's gonna be a fight. We gotta support Walt. We gotta hold our legislators accountable, HB 2650, pass the pass.
And if it doesn't, then we start unelecting folks. We start getting them out. Thank you for being here. Enjoy it. God bless you all. Just for reference, the current statute that actually criminalizes abortion in the state of Arizona is AZ Statute 13 -3603.
It's on the books, never been changed. Roe does nothing to change our state's law. We need to flex our state's sovereignty. It's against the law currently. This provides more protection and calls it what it is.
Yeah, do you wanna add anything? No? Okay, all right. All right, so we're actually gonna dismiss right now. And we're gonna go take a little bit of a break, come into actually worship before our rally.
And then we'll start the rally. So thank you guys all for being here. I'm gonna actually, yeah, that's right. Well, actually, they have for the press conference. One more song. Okay, let me pray real fast.
Father, please put your hand of blessing on Representative Blackmon, on his family, on his team, and all of our state legislators who are gonna have this before them. I pray that you give them courage.
For those who testify that they believe it's human life from conception, and they wanna protect human life, we pray you give them courage to do what is right, to uphold justice, and to give equal protection to all human beings in the womb.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
