U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly addresses the media after touring a Planned Parenthood clinic in Tempe on May 29, 2024. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly wants to codify abortion rights at the federal level to stabilize the procedure’s constantly changing legality in Arizona.
“We’ve got to get these rights back,” he said at a news conference held shortly after he toured Planned Parenthood Arizona’s Tempe clinic on Wednesday.
The Democrat vowed to look into the possibility of enshrining Roe v. Wade into federal law, denouncing the “rollercoaster” Arizona women have dealt with since the constitutional right to abortion was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022. Since then, the Grand Canyon State has swung between a 15-week gestational ban with no exceptions for rape or incest and a near-total ban from 1864 that punishes doctors with mandatory prison time.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The Arizona legislature repealed the 1864 law earlier this month, following a ruling from the state Supreme Court that it was once again enforceable. But, because legislative actions are delayed until 90 days after the session ends, the 160-year-old law is still expected to go into effect in September.
Reproductive rights advocates in the state are using legal maneuvers to push that effectiveness deadline as far as possible, until voters have a chance to weigh in on an abortion rights ballot measure that could preserve access up to 24 weeks, with ample exceptions beyond that point for a patient’s life, physical and mental health.
Angela Florez, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said the state’s legal whiplash has left patients confused and fearful about their future access to abortion care. The organization is Arizona’s largest abortion provider, running four of the state’s nine health clinics that offer the procedure. Florez shared that some women have expressed concerns about being prosecuted for obtaining an abortion, and others have sought to keep their procedures as private as possible, even foregoing anesthesia so they can drive themselves home.
“Patients have lost trust that they can receive basic health care in this state,” she said. “Patients are calling our health clinic and asking if they can still come to their scheduled abortion appointments. They’re strategizing to self-manage their abortions and asking if Planned Parenthood can provide them with follow-up care.”
Abortions in Arizona are currently legal up until 15 weeks of gestation, after which only emergency procedures to prevent death or permanent injury can be performed under state law. Abortions for the sole reason of the fetuses’ genetic abnormality are prohibited. No Arizona law punishes women for receiving an abortion.
Kelly pointed out that, along with the immediate harm threatened by Arizona’s restrictive abortion laws for women, the bans create a hostile legal environment for doctors — and they’re already impacting the state’s future health care workforce.
A recent analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges found that the number of applicants for OB-GYN residencies has fallen dramatically in states with abortion bans. In Arizona, the percentage rate of applications dipped by 1.8% in 2022-2023, the first year after Roe was overturned and Arizona was plunged into uncertainty. And from 2023 to 2024, when the Grand Canyon State teetered between the 1864 near-total ban and the 15-week law, residency applications plummeted by 26.4%.
“We’re going to be suffering the effects of this, potentially for decades,” Kelly lamented.
He said on Wednesday that the solution to the fragile legality of abortion care in Arizona, and the best way to prevent future attacks, is the passage of abortion protections in Congress.
“We’ve got to codify Roe at the federal level,” he said. “I think that is truly the path forward.”
But that’s easier said than done in a divided, highly partisan Congress that’s likely to see another shakeup in November. Democrats, with the help of a few Democratic-leaning independents, hold the U.S. Senate with a razor thin majority and the lower chamber is controlled by Republicans by just 217 to 213. Both chambers are up for grabs this election, and Democrats are campaigning hard on abortion access, counting on the issue to mobilize voters and award them a trifecta.
On Wednesday, Kelly advocated for U.S. Senate hopeful Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, and said voters focused on reproductive autonomy won’t be swayed by former President Donald Trump’s bid for the White House, despite President Joe Biden’s lagging popularity.
“President Biden has a record to run on on this issue,” Kelly said. “He wants to take us forward, he wants to fix this, he wants to get Roe codified. His opponent wants to take us back to 1864.”
Trump has stated he supports the rights of states to regulate abortion procedures on their own, though he has previously signaled an interest in a 15-week federal abortion ban. Meanwhile, his allies have floated the idea of using the Comstock Act, a federal law from 1873 that prohibits the mailing of abortifacients, as a way to completely wipe out abortion access across the country.
On top of the uncertainty of next year’s political makeup, pro-abortion advocates in the state Senate must also contend with the likelihood of a filibuster if Democrats don’t secure more than majority control in November. Without 60 votes, Democrats in the upper chamber will be unable to break through a potential filibuster from anti-abortion Republicans and move forward with codifying Roe.
Kelly said that, just as he did when voting rights legislation was being considered in 2022, he would support a move to override the chamber’s rules around filibusters.
“For some issues, allowing 40% of the United States Senate to prevent something that maybe 59 of us would want doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. We had a vote on voting rights, where I voted to change the rules temporarily for this issue, because I think it was important for the health of our democracy. In this case, this is important for the health of American women so I would take the same steps,” he said.
Kelly added that he would support efforts to award federal grants to Planned Parenthood Arizona to bolster its work in the state, but noted that doing so would require overcoming federally enacted hurdles. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal money from being used to fund abortion care, with narrow exceptions under Medicaid for emergency procedures. But Kelly said he would be willing to back a bid to end that prohibition.
As with the effort to codify the standard in Roe, however, such a move would be dependent on the outcome of the November elections.
SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
The post Mark Kelly pledges to codify <i>Roe</i> abortion rights appeared first on Arizona Mirror.