Press Release Georgia
Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona Condemns Arizona Republicans for Spending $1.5 Million on Fake Health Centers in Budget
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Contact: [email protected]
Phoenix — On Saturday, the Arizona Legislature released its $15.8 billion budget, including $1.5 million allocated to fake health centers. Fake health centers—often called “crisis pregnancy centers”—are anti-choice organizations that intentionally lie to, shame, and mislead pregnant people seeking an abortion in order to block them from accessing care. The legislature finalized this budget just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the constitutional right to abortion in the United States as we know it.
NARAL Pro-Choice America Southwest Regional Director Caroline Mello Roberson released the following statement in response:
“Arizona’s budget is meant to reflect the values of Arizonans—and the anti-choice majority in the legislature are instead choosing to go against the 9 in 10 Arizonans who know that each of us should have the freedom to decide how and when we start or grow a family, free from political interference. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade just days ago, and instead of ensuring people in Arizona have access to necessary care, lawmakers in the state are doubling down on their efforts to harm women and pregnant people. NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona and our members will not forget this come November and will be turning out to oust the lawmakers who left us in harm’s way.”
This year’s budget comes as the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization begins to have swift and devastating impacts across the country. Now that Roe has been overturned, extreme bans on abortion are in effect in nine states, and many more states across the country are likely to quickly enact severe limits or outright bans on abortion care.
The people who will be hurt most by the Supreme Court’s decision and Arizona’s support of fake health centers are those who already face barriers to accessing abortion care—including women; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those working to make ends meet; the LGBTQ+ community; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.
In addition to this budget item, anti-choice state lawmakers in Arizona introduced multiple attacks on reproductive freedom this legislative session—including HB 2483, modeled after Texas’ unprecedented vigilante-enforced ban on abortion; SB 1164, which makes providing an abortion after 15 weeks a crime, with no consideration for a pregnant person’s circumstances; and HB 2811, which would prohibit physicians from providing medication abortion care. In March, Republican Governor Doug Ducey had the shameful distinction of signing the nation’s first 15-week ban on abortion (SB 1164) of the 2022 legislative session into law.
NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona and its 52,000 members are already ramping up our work to elect candidates up and down the ballot who will take bold action to safeguard and expand abortion rights and access. The Arizona legislature is currently held by a razor-thin, anti-choice Republican majority, with 12 vulnerable seats where lawmakers voted in favor of anti-choice legislation.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.