Amid a push to add abortion rights to the AZ Constitution, pro-lifers rally for ‘crucial’ action

A sea of pink and blue balloons emblazoned with “Choose Life” descended on the Arizona state Capitol on Friday, during the annual rally held by anti-abortion organization March for Life, the theme of which was resounding opposition to the state’s upcoming abortion rights ballot initiative.

“This is a crucial time in Arizona, because the abortion lobby is more aggressive and more deceptive than ever before,” said Garrett Riley, executive director of the Arizona Life Coalition. “We rally and we march today to confront the lies of abortion with truth.” 

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion by overturning the protections granted in Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years earlier. In anticipation of that decision, Arizona lawmakers had passed a 15-week gestational ban, with no exceptions for rape or incest, that is currently in effect. 

Last year, reproductive rights groups responded by drafting the Arizona Abortion Access Act, seeking to win voter approval to enshrine the procedure in the Arizona Constitution. The effort is still in the signature-gathering stage, but is well on its way to meeting the qualification threshold to qualify for the November ballot. In January, the campaign announced it had already collected 250,000 of the 383,923 signatures needed. 

On Friday, abortion foes called on the hundreds of Arizonans gathered at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, across from the state Capitol, to defeat the fledgling ballot initiative. 

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State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, a Republican, said she had built her political career around her pro-life beliefs, and touted her accomplishments as a lawmaker, when she passed the state’s ultrasound law. The requirement mandates that abortion providers show patients an ultrasound image of their fetus and offer them the opportunity to listen to the fetal heartbeat at least 24 hours before a procedure. 

Yee warned rally goers that law, among other abortion restrictions, stand to be struck down by the abortion ballot initiative. 

“That law was passed and has been on the books, and we have to protect it from those who don’t choose life,” she said. 

If passed, the initiative would protect abortion access up to the point of fetal viability, usually considered to be around 23 to 24 weeks, invalidating any state law or policy that restricts or denies a person’s ability to obtain abortion care. The act does include an exception for laws intended to safeguard the patient’s health that don’t infringe on their decision-making ability. 

Olivia Escobedo, political director for the It Goes Too Far campaign that was launched to oppose the abortion initiative, denounced the act as too extreme for Arizona. 

“In order to expand abortion, proponents are putting forward a dangerous and extreme ballot measure,” she said. “What they are seeking to do is to enshrine unrestricted, unregulated late term abortion into Arizona’s state constitution.”

The initiative also shields abortions sought after the point of fetal viability if the patient’s health provider agrees it is necessary to preserve their physical or mental health. The broad exception has been the subject of vehement criticism by opponents. 

Escobedo warned that, as a voter-approved constitutional amendment, the proposal will be outside of the legislature’s ability to change. The 1998 Voter Protection Act largely forbids lawmakers from editing any voter-approved measures without first going back to the ballot to request permission. The only recourse left, Escobedo said, is to prevent it from passing. 

“What we need to do is fight this, because the legislature, if this passes, will have no power to overturn it,” she said. “We have to talk to every single voter.” 

The It Goes Too Far campaign is spearheading a “Decline to Sign” strategy to convince voters not to support signature petitions in the hopes that the proposal will be killed before it can make it to the ballot. But with the proposal already more than halfway to the required signature threshold, that’s a tall order to meet. 

Attendees at the 2024 March for Life rally in Phoenix on March 1, 2024, carry signs encouraging people not to sign a proposed ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona Constitution. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror

Republican lawmakers showed up to support the rally, calling on attendees to reject the abortion ballot initiative and brandishing their anti-abortion bona fides. 

“Don’t let distractors confuse you with misleading terms,” Rep. Selina Bliss, flanked by GOP colleagues, said. “A child is not a reproductive choice and abortion care is not health care.”

Just a day earlier, the Republican from Prescott introduced a proclamation in the state House of Representatives urging Arizonans to defeat the abortion proposal. Every Republican in the lower chamber signed onto the proclamation, and a mirror version in the state Senate garnered similar support. 

“Whereas we oppose the effort underway to change the Arizona Constitution to allow children to be aborted during all nine months of development in the womb and whereas we celebrate the wonder of human existence and renew our resolve to build a culture of life where every person of every age is protected, valued, and cherished, we in the Arizona legislature urge every person to refuse to sign the Arizona Abortion Access Act on the ballot as this is an assault on God’s value and sovereignty regarding the sanctity of human life,” reads the proclamation Bliss reread and waved to loud cheers from the crowd. 

Opponents of the Arizona Abortion Access Act have sought to highlight its post-viability exception to characterize it as unacceptably extreme. But data shows that the vast majority of abortions occur before 20 weeks of gestation. In 2021, 94% of the 13,896 abortions provided in Arizona were performed at or before 15 weeks, and just 1.6% of abortions were obtained after 20 weeks. 

Following the rally, attendees marched around the state Capitol, holding up handmade signs and chanting “Let their hearts beat” and “One, two, three, four, Roe v. Wade is out the door! Five, six, seven, eight, now it’s time to legislate!”  

Brina Sauer told the Arizona Mirror that she is opposed to the Arizona Abortion Access Act because it’s too permissive. Every abortion, she said, should inspire concern. And the state’s 15-week ban, she added, also doesn’t go far enough. 

“There needs to be a tightening of the law, but we’re headed in the right direction,” she said. 

The Arizona Supreme Court is currently mulling whether to reinstate a near-total ban from 1864 that would outlaw every abortion except those to save the mother’s life. The law carries with it a mandatory 2 to 5 year prison sentence for doctors who violate its Civil War-era provisions.

Democrats across the country are counting on abortion to be a motivating factor in the November elections and, while Republicans are largely moving away from all out bans in an attempt to avoid voter backlash, Sauer said her pro-life beliefs will feature prominently in who she votes for. 

But Rachel Thompson, who joined the march with her nine-month-old son strapped to her back, said her opinions about abortion aren’t going to take her to the ballot box, despite her strong opposition to the initiative. 

“It’s not a political issue for me,” she said. “I see it as more of a political theater.” 

Instead, her top concern is immigration – a topic that has risen to the number one spot in voter minds for the first time in five years. Thompson added that she opposes any state action on abortion, saying that she fears restrictions will only push women to underground options or across state lines. 

Instead, she said, she’d prefer to educate women about their options, including motherhood, and let them make their own decisions.