The Arizona legislature has passed a bill banning abortions based on the race or gender of the fetus, despite the fact that evidence of such a practice doesn’t exist, and such an abortion was likely impossible to get in the first place.

Via ABC News:

Arizona has made it a crime to perform an abortion because of the sex or race of the fetus.

The bill, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer Tuesday, aims at doctors or other abortion providers. It allows the father of the aborted baby — or the maternal grandparents if the mother is a minor — to take legal action against an abortion provider, who could face up to seven years in jail and the loss of their medical license if convicted.

Proponents of the new measure said it protected against capricious abortions performed because parents preferred a baby of a different race or gender.

How prevalent was this scourge of race and gender based abortions?  Well, gender cannot be predicted accurately via ultrasound until at least 14 weeks.  Roughly 400 of the state’s 10,000 abortions performed in 2009 were performed after 14 weeks, accounting for less than 4 percent of the induced abortions.  As for the race of the fetus, there’s an almost near certainty that when a woman conceives she’s aware of what race of child she is having.  Exactly how does one determine she is aborting due to the race of the fetus?

More abortion restrictions passed simply in order for anti-choice politicians to claim that they are winning victories when it comes to stopping abortions.