ARIZONIANS TO VOTE ON ABORTION ACCESS
Along with choosing the next president this November, Arizonians will also vote on whether to change the state’s constitution.
Proposition 139 seeks to amend the Arizona Constitution to allow abortions up to foetal viability – much later than the current 15-week limit in the state.
“They’re complex medical situations, and the only people who can make those decisions is the patient, their family and the doctor,” said Gabrielle Goodrick, owner and medical director of abortion clinic Camelback Family Planning.
“The last thing you need is a politician sitting in the room, telling you what to do, when they have no idea what they’re talking about,” she added.
Abortion providers in Arizona have warned that marginalised communities are disproportionately affected by restrictive laws.
Data from the state’s health department shows that Latina women, a crucial group in the electorate, made up 45 per cent of abortions in 2022.
Research has shown that more than 60 per cent of those seeking abortions are people of colour and about half live in poverty.
That hit home recently for Morgan Finkelstein, who found out some years ago that one of her twins in utero had a congenital heart defect.
The Arizona resident was advised to get a selective reduction – a procedure to reduce the number of foetuses in a multiple pregnancy.
Unable to get such a procedure in her own state, she was forced to travel to neighbouring California. She later gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
“I realised how many women probably couldn’t have shelled out US$9,000 and travelled across … state lines and accessed the care that they needed,” she told CNA.
When asked if she thinks other women will not have to go through a similar experience if Harris is elected, Finkelstein responded: “I believe her when she says that she wants to protect women and she wants to restore abortion rights.”
As the fight goes on about when life begins and who gets to decide this, the next US president will inherit a nation deeply divided over reproductive rights – with neither side willing to back down over what some say is a matter of life and death.
