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Arizona and the rest of the country are still navigating a distressing economic and healthcare crisis due to COVID-19. Rather than offer communities the financial and living resources we all needed to survive and thrive during a global crisis, the AZ GOP Legislature ignored the demands of residents for pandemic relief and focused on banning abortion healthcare and restricting access to contraceptives.
At the start of the 2021 legislative session, anti-abortion extremists introduced 12 bills that would increase unnecessary and harmful restrictions to abortion care and contraceptives and ban abortion altogether based on gestational stage or genetic fetal disability. Rep. Walter Blackman introduced a heinous bill, {HB#} that called for punishment by death to abortion providers and pregnant people that choose abortion. An equally alarming bill with passed votes in both the House and Senate chambers is SB 1457, which grants personhood rights to embryos, beginning at conception. This bill madeits way to Governor Doug Ducey the week of April 28, 2021.
Raising families through an economic crisis is terrifying. In addition to skyrocketing unemployment due to the pandemic, there has been a steady increase in unaffordable housing, food insecurity, mental health struggles, even disparities among accessing covid healthcare testing and medical treatment. It makes sense that people will choose having an abortion over starting or growing a family during an economic and healthcare crisis. Each person knows what is best for their lives. We have a human right to decide if and when we want to start and raise families. The government needs to stay out of our personal reproductive choices that should remain a private matter between patient and healthcare provider. In times of a state-wide crisis, we believe that access to contraceptives and abortion care should be widely available and affordable, including availability on demand.