Democrats Criticize Arizona GOP Leader's Birth Control Comments, Force Resignation
A Republican leader from Arizona has reportedly stepped down after his comments on Medicaid and birth control angered many politicians in his home state.
Russell Pearce, formerly the president of the Arizona Senate, stepped down from his position as the state party's vice chairman over the weekend after he said women on Medicaid should either take birth control or be sterilized.
Pearce, whose comments have received criticism from democrats and republicans in the state, shared his controversial opinion on Medicaid and birth control while speaking on his radio program earlier in September.
"You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get a woman Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations […]," Pearce said. "Then we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job," Pearce added.
After stepping down on Saturday, Pearce released a statement saying that the comments he said had actually been written by someone else but he had failed to properly attribute them. "Recently on my radio show there was a discussion about the abuses to our welfare system. I shared comments written by someone else and failed to attribute them to the author. This was a mistake. This mistake has been taken by the media and the left and used to hurt our Republican candidates."
"I do not want the progressive left and the media to try and take a misstatement from my show and use it to attack our candidates. I care about the Republican Party and its conservative platform too much to let them do that. […] I will never back down from standing up for what I believe in, and I will continue to fight for the principles that our founding generation risked their lives for. But I have no intention of being used as a distraction by the Democrats," Pearce added.
D.J. Quinlan, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, denounced Pearce's recent comments in a statement. "For the first vice chair of the Arizona Republican Party to advocate for forced sterilization is unacceptable," Quinlan said, adding that "the silence of [state] Republican leaders […] is even worse."
