The Quickie: Near-Total Abortion Ban Takes Effect in Arizona

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.

NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN TAKES EFFECT IN ARIZONA: On Friday, the Pima County Superior Court allowed an 1864 near-total abortion ban with a narrow exception to save the life of a pregnant person to take effect in Arizona. The court refused to harmonize various laws related to abortion access across the state, including a 15-week ban that took effect on Saturday, creating chaos and confusion. This decision has forced Planned Parenthood Arizona (PPAZ) to pause abortion services and cancel appointments, meaning that thousands of Arizonans will be denied control over their reproductive lives and their ability to have a safe, legal abortion. President and CEO of PPAZ Brittany Fonteno said of the ruling, 

“Today’s ruling by the Pima county superior court has the practical and deplorable result of sending Arizonans back nearly 150 years. No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom and how we live our lives today. We know that today’s ruling does not reflect the will of the people, as Arizonans are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion access. Instead, it is the result of extremist Attorney General Brnovich and other anti-abortion elected officials who are on a mission to strip Arizonans from their right to live under a rule of law that respects our bodily autonomy and reproductive decisions. Let me be clear, this is not the end of the fight, this harmful ban has no place in Arizona and we will persist until that is achieved.”

Kelley Dupps, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes in Arizona, highlighted what this means for the midterm elections: 

“Kari Lake and Blake Masters want to drag us backward. This archaic abortion ban strips nearly all Arizonans of the right to control our own bodies — a right 87% of Arizonans support. Arizonans are now living in the world Lake and Masters envision: One without reproductive freedom and where politicians have the power to decide how we live our lives. 

“They’re grossly out-of-touch and if elected, will continue to push their dangerous and unpopular anti-abortion agenda. We cannot and will not let that happen. Arizonans were already outraged by the limited access to and restrictions on abortion in our state and this ruling will only add fuel to the fire. This November, we’re racing to the ballot box to re-elect Sen. Mark Kelly and send Katie Hobbs to the governor's office.” 

Read more at AP, New York Times, and Washington Post. 

PENNSYLVANIA ELECTIONS COULD DETERMINE ABORTION’S FATE: This weekend, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board again sounded the alarm for abortion rights, writing that “races for governor and U.S. Senate could determine whether people have access to reproductive rights in Pennsylvania and nationwide.” The editorial paints a stark contrast between the two gubernatorial candidates, reproductive rights champion Josh Shapiro and anti-abortion extremist Doug Mastriano: 

If elected, Mastriano promised to “move with alacrity” to ban abortion after about six weeks into a pregnancy. He made clear his ban would include victims of rape and incest. “I don’t give a way for exceptions,” Mastriano said…

Given the state House and Senate in Pennsylvania are controlled by Republicans, if elected, Mastriano would have a clear path to outlaw abortion.

The current governor, Tom Wolf, a Democrat who is completing his second term and is barred from running for reelection, is the only thing keeping Harrisburg lawmakers from imposing Texas-style antiabortion measures. Since Wolf took office, the General Assembly has introduced six different antiabortion bills. Wolf vetoed three measures that made it to his desk and vowed to veto any others that came before him.

Mastriano’s opponent is Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. Like Wolf, Shapiro supports a pregnant person’s right to an abortion in Pennsylvania. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Shapiro rallied in defense of abortion rights with hundreds of others at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The editorial board also slammed U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, who has called abortion murder and is likely to support a national abortion ban. Pennsylvania is a critical access point for abortion, but with anti-abortion leadership in power, Pennsylvanians could lose their ability to make decisions about their lives.. As the board wrote: the choice is clear. Pennsylvanians must elect leaders who will protect abortion. 

POLITICS, POWER, AND REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM @ TEXAS TRIBUNE FEST: On Saturday, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, reflected on the overturn of Roe and the future of reproductive rights at the Texas Tribune Festival alongside former state Sen. Wendy Davis and state Rep. Donna Howard. Alexis highlighted the lessons she’s learned from anti-abortion legislators, particularly the manipulative tactics they use to maintain power:

“If there is any surprise or any lesson from the opposition, it is how they are willing to destroy democratic institutions in the name of power. That is the difference. That is something that we have to be prepared to fight differently. So when you see the Senate majority leader weaponizing rule changes at a whim, like ‘I’m gonna hold Merrick Garland’s seat, but then I’m gonna rush Amy Coney Barrett through,’ we have to think about elections, these moments and movements. They have a movement around building power and consolidating it so they can do whatever the hell they want to do.”

Alexis discussed looking to past movements for inspiration, and emphasized the need to keep fighting for justice: 

“When I think about the fact that this is the first time a right has been taken away, I go back to Reconstruction and when the troops first pulled out. We have to take lessons not just from the Tea Party, but from struggles for justice and freedom that don’t have the luxury of sitting in despair. That don’t have the luxury of not fighting, or believing that freedom will come.”

“I wanna be able to control my body, I wanna be able to make decisions, I wanna be able to have people recognize that I trust myself to make these decisions. I want it to be funded in the budget. I want it to be part of health care, because that’s exactly where it should be located. I think we should be naming all of these things. I think we should be naming the racism that has not only connected the dots between abortion rights to voting rights to fighting CRT. I think we need to acknowledge that for some people, this war may not have ended.”

Watch the full conversation here.