Roe vs. Wade: Here's how members of Arizona's congressional delegation marked anniversary
Arizona’s congressional delegation and state organizations marked the 51st anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a national right to abortion for nearly 50 years.
The decision stood as a solid precedent for abortion rights in the U.S. until 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned it through the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision. The Dobbs decision eliminated federal protections for abortion, instead giving the right to establish protections or not to the states.
Standing in front of the Supreme Court Monday, Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., posted a video to X, formally known as Twitter, to commemorate the anniversary.
“Time and time again, both here in the Capitol and in Arizona, they’ve been trying to reduce women’s access to safe and legal abortions,” Gallego said. “We are going to continue the fight.”
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., also vowed to fight for abortion protections.
“I’ve always supported women’s freedoms, and I’ll continue working with anyone to protect their ability to make decisions about their futures,” Sinema said on X after listing many of her reproductive policy-related achievements, such as introducing the Reproductive Freedom for All Act.
Meanwhile, Arizona’s Republican representatives said nothing about the anniversary on social media.
In the state, abortion access is restricted to 15 weeks, meaning that those who wish to receive care would have to do so at or before the 15 week-mark of their pregnancy. The restriction took effect in October 2022.
Yet, that restriction could get more intense as “we face a near-total ban on abortion, currently under consideration by our own state Supreme Court,” said Chris Love, executive committee member for Arizona for Abortion Access, in a written statement.
Love’s organization, Arizona for Abortion Access, is looking to change through its ballot initiative.
More: Arizona abortion rights advocates launch signature-gathering effort for ballot measure
If the initiative gathers the required amount of signatures to get on the ballot and is passed in November by Arizona voters, abortion rights would be protected in the state.
The statewide ballot initiative needs to gather more than 383,000 voter signatures by July 3 to get on the 2024 ballot. However, organizers are looking to collect 500,000 signatures in case of legal challenges to individual signatures.
Despite that high threshold, organizers announced Jan. 11 that they had collected more than 250,000 signatures, or half of their goal. The organization continued its signature-gathering campaign over the weekend at the Women’s March at the Arizona State Capitol.
More: Hundreds rally at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix for the National Women's March
“We are focused on states where there is a really active fight,” Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of the Women’s March, told The Arizona Republic on Wednesday. “Arizona, which is a crucial swing state, where a proposal to codify the right to abortion access is working its way toward the 2024 ballot.”
The Women’s March hosted a nationwide march on Saturday to commemorate Roe's 51st anniversary. Approximately, 1,500 people attended the march in Phoenix.
As Arizona for Abortion Access continues to collect signatures, Love memorialized the Roe decision as one that ensured that individuals “had autonomy over their own bodies, and could make their own decisions about abortion and pregnancy without government interference.”
The organization is working "to ensure that abortion rights are preserved in our state for generations to come," Love said.
Reach reporter Morgan Fischer at morgan.fischer@gannett.com or on X, formally known as Twitter, @morgfisch.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Roe vs. Wade: Here's what Sinema and Gallego said about anniversary
