By Susan Shapiro
Director of Indivisible Northern Arizona, Steering Committee of Flagstaff Abortion Alliance (FAA), Precinct Committee Person – Flagstaff 22
Women’s History Month has given us the opportunity to reflect on and learn about the fascinating women whose discoveries, leadership, activism, and art has changed the course of history. It is ironic and deeply disturbing that as great women are being lauded, many legislatures in our country are treating women’s lives as secondary to the fetuses they carry and are using every possible mechanism to deny women (and people who can get pregnant) their reproductive freedom. Some states ban abortion with no exception for rape, incest, or saving the mother’s life, and some cast suspicion or outright criminalize any pregnancy outcome that doesn’t result in a live birth, or any doctor that has to decide whether a woman is close enough to death in order to justify a life-saving abortion. And a number of legislatures have pushed the idea of making abortion a homicide.
Trump’s supreme court nominations were hand-picked to deliver the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, but as the Texas mifepristone case demonstrates, the ultimate goal is a complete ban on abortion nationally. The Alliance Defending Freedom group that was behind the Mississippi case that toppled Roe v Wade, is also behind the case in Texas seeking to outlaw the abortion drug mifepristone, cases challenging marriage equality, and cases arguing for the right to discriminate against the LBGTQ
community. They are also pushing an appeal to Arizona’s supreme court to bring back the 1864 law that would reinstate a total abortion ban.
I read an excellent newsletter by Jessica Valenti, called “Abortion Every Day,” so I’m pretty well versed in the relentless attacks on reproductive freedom. But there is good news.
*On March 7 th , Flagstaff City Council joined Tucson and Phoenix in adopting a resolution declaring opposition to the Dobbs decision and AZ laws that impede access to abortion.
*A majority of Americans – 64% – say abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, and there has been reporting that the Dobbs decision will continue to reverberate through the 2024 election cycle.
* Gov. Hobbs has convened a coalition to explore a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights.
* Indivisible has declared Arizona a “battleground state,” focusing on flipping CD1 and CD6 in an effort to take back the House in 2024, a key step in codifying reproductive rights nationally. (https://www.unrepresentative18.org/)
Abortion is legal through 15 weeks of gestation in Arizona. However, Arizona laws create many barriers to accessing services. For example, medication must be prescribed by a doctor in person, there’s a 24 wait, there are hurdles for doctors to be able to provide
services, etc. Those hurdles are the reason we lack abortion services in Flagstaff – which affects the vast area of northern Arizona that our medical facilities serve. And our Republican legislature is relentlessly pushing bills for the sole purpose of stirring up the
debate and perpetuating abortion myths.
You might be wondering what you can do to help. Here are a few options:
1. Give to an abortion fund to help Arizonians access abortion care: https://www.abortionfundofaz.org/.
2. Help Desert Star FP stay open: https://gofund.me/3f05b3b0 – we can’t afford to lose any of our dwindling number of clinics.
3. Get involved in the effort to elect Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 4 th :
https://www.mobilize.us/?q=Wisconsin%20 Read why it’s important:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/27/wisconsin-supreme-court-election-00084406
4. Stay tuned for updates on the AZ ballot initiative and be ready to help gather signatures this summer.
We will not allow a religious minority to force their extremist beliefs on us. Abortion is a personal decision that the state should not
be involved in.