The Quickie: Abortion Ballot Initiatives Arrive in a "Galvanizing Moment"

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: Updates on abortion ballot initiatives and PP Action Fund prez on Florida’s abortion ballot measure.

ABORTION BALLOT INITIATIVES ARRIVE IN A “GALVANIZING MOMENT”: On Monday, Florida’s Supreme Court simultaneously approved a ballot measure to protect abortion rights and upheld the state’s 15-week abortion ban, paving the way for a 6-week ban to take effect at the beginning of May. Sarah Standiford, national campaigns director for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, joined NPR on All Things Considered to discuss how ballot measures have become an important strategy for abortion rights supporters in states that have enacted restrictions that may be out of step with what voters want. Standiford  explained, “It is an important, galvanizing moment because voters have both experienced and will experience more [of] the harm that comes when politicians try to make decisions that are personal, private and should belong between women and their doctors.”

Other key battleground states include Arizona, where the campaign to enshrine abortion rights announced that they have gathered more than 500,000 signatures ahead of a July deadline, and Nevada, where a similar campaign has collected over 100,000. Arizona for Abortion Access campaign director Cheryl Bruce told NBC News, “As our volunteers are out collecting, people are coming up to them, folks are coming up to them and wanting to sign this petition. They want to see access to abortion restored in the state of Arizona.” Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom president Lindsey Harmon has seen a similar phenomenon in her state, saying in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “We are overwhelmed by Nevadans’ enthusiasm for protecting our reproductive rights and by the eagerness that voters across the political spectrum have shown for our petition.” 

Listen to the NPR interview here, and learn more about Arizona and Nevada’s ballot initiatives. 

 

FLORIDIANS WILL DECIDE: Yesterday, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson joined MSNBC’s Deadline White House alongside Molly Jong-Fast, special correspondent for Vanity Fair, and political strategist Basil Smikle to discuss the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the state’s abortion ban and put the issue on the ballot in November. Alexis noted, “To see that the Floridians Protecting Freedom are able to have that really critical ballot initiative where the voters will actually get to decide what freedom looks like in Florida is incredibly powerful and it couldn’t have come at a more important time.” She spoke to the issue’s ability to cut across demographics and party lines, underscoring that “this is a matter of whether or not we get to own our own health care decisions or if the government owns our health care decisions. It's really that pure and simple.

Watch the interview here.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund, 123 William Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10038. Provided in-kind to Floridians Protecting Freedom.