Students for Life, a Catholic student group, has expressed concerns over the passing of Proposition 139, known as the Arizona Abortion Access Act, which has divided voters and showed the changing values of the Republican party.
The proposition, which will enshrine the right to choose an abortion in the state constitution, passed with 61% of the vote. Anti-abortion voters are disappointed with the results, but some experts say it should worry advocates on both sides of the debate.
Danise Rees, president of Students for Life at the ASU Catholic Newman Center, spoke about canvassing and tabling for months prior to the election. The group set up tables at ASU, UofA and NAU and spoke directly with students.
“The response was actually quite positive,” Rees said, “I don’t think that most people know is that (abortion is) so extreme and it goes past what most people who consider themselves pro-choice to even represent.”
The amendment prohibits the state from making any law that restricts abortions before fetal viability which is defined as the point when “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
Rees stated the amendment would place viability after birth, compared to previously when abortions were permitted up to 15 weeks. The amendment also replaced the need for a qualified medical doctor, and instead allows training health care professionals to conduct the procedure.
“Some things that include healthcare professionals are veterinarians or physical therapists or dentists, like all these things that aren’t people who are qualified to give abortions or even refer people to abortion pills,” said Rees.
Peter Culley, an altar server at the Newman Center and anti-abortion activist, spoke with students on campus and volunteers looking for signatures.
“They didn’t read the fine print,” Culley said. “They think that it’s all about making sure that women have a ‘basic right’, they call it, but they don’t understand what the full implications of this amendment are.”
According to a letter from the Arizona Catholic Conference, the amendment may remove many of the current safeguards in abortion clinics and “permit a minor to obtain an abortion without parental involvement” which Rees said could allow for “sexual traffickers to take underage girls into abortion clinics and not need parental consent.”
“While this ballot measure claims to be moderate in nature, its vague language would make Arizona one of the most extreme states in terms of abortion,” Bishops with the Arizona Catholic Conference said in the letter.
Mark Habelt, vice-president of the organization spoke on the shift of the Republican party away from the issue of abortion. With the passing of more conservative leaning propositions such as Proposition 312 and 314, the passing of the Arizona Abortion Access Act stands in stark contrast.
President-elect Donald Trump and other conservatives such as Kari Lake, who lost in the Senate race, have stated in their policy statements that they will make no effort to enact an abortion ban.
“Just goes to show the conservative movement is not your father’s conservative movement like it was 40 years ago,” Habelt said. “It’s definitely shifted in a pro-choice direction.”
Edited by Shi Bradley
