6 March 20th-March 26th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | TELL US WHAT YOU THINK TELL US WHAT YOU THINK YES, I’LL TAKE THE SURVEY YES, I’LL TAKE THE SURVEY SCAN HERE TAKE OUR AUDIENCE SURVEY AND LET US KNOW HOW WE ARE DOING No Silver Bullet Arizona voted for abortion rights. Getting one is still too hard. BY MORGAN FISCHER L ate on a recent afternoon, Dr. DeShawn Taylor dropped into a black office chair. Letting out a large sigh, she wanted to steal a moment to rest. Her workday is over, but there was more to do. Sporting purple scrubs and a matching bob, Taylor is always busy. She’s an OB-GYN who runs the Desert Star Institute for Family Planning in Phoenix, which offers abortions and other types of reproductive care. She’s also an activist. She advocated for Proposition 139, a ballot measure enshrining a right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution. And she then worked to convince voters to pass it. Pass it they did. Reproductive rights are popular in Arizona, with 61% of voters opting to write them into the state consti- tution last fall. The ballot initiative was more popular among Arizonans than the winner of the Presidential election — the amendment gained 230,045 more votes in the state than Donald Trump. That victory signaled the end of Arizona’s preexisting 15-week ban on abor- tion, which was finally invalidated by a judge earlier this month. Yet for Taylor and other abortion providers in Arizona, not much else has changed. They can perform abortions up to fetal viability — roughly 23 or 24 weeks — but a maze of other restric- tions persists. The 15-week ban was only one of roughly 40 anti-abortion statutes on the books in Arizona. The rest of those laws continue to do their intended purpose — make abor- tions harder to get. Abortion providers and activists have tried to get those laws repealed by the Arizona Legislature, but the going is tough. Anti-abortion Republicans hold majorities in both chambers. As she sipped a cup of coffee, Taylor opened her laptop to check on the effort. Her organization, the Arizona Proactive Reproductive Justice Alliance, is pushing a bill that would handle the problem in one fell swoop. Senate Bill 1553, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Analise Ortiz, would repeal nearly every abortion restriction in the Arizona Revised Statutes. The state’s 24-waiting period and tele- health ban, which require two in-person appointments before patients can get an abortion, would be gone. So would the prohibition on nurse practitioners providing medical abortions and reading required state-created scripts. Abortions would be allowed when the fetus has a genetic abnormality. “Wait,” she said with surprise, scrolling slowly the legislature’s Bill Tracker page. “It got a hearing.” That’s all it got. Ortiz’s bill never escaped committee, meaning it would never get an up-or-down vote in the Senate. If it had, the vote likely would have been down. The Republican-controlled legislature has yet to let a pro-abortion bill make it to the floor. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers have pushed several bills that would restrict abortion further. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs will stop those anti-abortion measures from becoming law, but abortion advocates such as Taylor will have to rely on court battles to whittle down the laws currently in effect. That process will be long. Prop. 139 forced a change — a big one, to be sure — but only one. Every day, abortion providers jump through hoops and clear hurdles to give women the reproductive care the state constitution now says is their right. “Anti-abortion sentiment,” said Taylor, “is baked into every part of our system.” A web of restrictions Taylor opened her clinic in 2013. She has never known an Arizona without restrictive abortion laws. That was the case prior to the fall of Roe v. Wade in Proposition 139 wasn’t a silver bullet to take out all of Arizona’s abortion restrictions. A host of them remain on the books, making obtaining care all the more difficult. (Ridofranz/Getty Images) >> p 9 | NEWS |
