Tag Archives: pro-choice

Meet Our Candidates: Katie Hobbs for State Senator, LD 24

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The Arizona primary election will be held on August 28, 2012. With so many recent legislative challenges to reproductive health care access, both nationally and statewide, the importance of this election year can’t be overstated. To help voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive health and freedom. Along with those endorsements, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates,” spotlighting each Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona-endorsed candidate. To vote in the primaries, you must register to vote by July 30 — and can even register online. Make your voice heard in 2012!

Katie Hobbs is currently a representative for Legislative District 15 in Phoenix, and a candidate for state senator in Arizona’s new LD 24. Hobbs established herself as a leader during her first term in the state legislature. She has been very vocal about women’s health care issues and sex education. She is a lifelong resident of Phoenix, and we’re very proud to endorse her. What follows is an exclusive interview conducted in July 2012.

“Making women’s reproductive health care accessible, affordable, and safe should be a top priority.”

Tell us a little about your background.

I’m a social worker — I have a master’s degree in social work. I’ve spent 20 years working with homelessness, mental health, and domestic violence. I’m also a native Arizonan, wife, and mother, and I’m raising my family here in central Phoenix. I don’t want Arizona to be the state that is constantly ridiculed in the national media. I am proud to be an Arizonan, and I want my children to be proud that they grew up here.

What women’s health care issues do you think should be addressed in the legislature?

We have done some good things for women’s health care. This past year, we passed a bill that will help more women diagnosed with breast cancer have access to treatment. Unfortunately, you can’t separate reproductive health care from women’s health and that’s just what the legislature has tried to do. They have passed legislation (which I fought against!) that severely compromises women’s health by restricting access to family planning, cancer screenings, preventive care, and safe and legal abortion. Continue reading →

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona Announces its Endorsed Candidates for the State Primary Election

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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona (PPAA) proudly endorses 58 candidates statewide for the primary elections on August 28, 2012. The elections in 2012 also mark the first year that the PPAA Political Action Committee (PAC) will be a qualified super PAC in the state of Arizona.

“Thanks to the generosity of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona members, we are a state super PAC this year. We can now give up to $1,736 to a traditionally financed candidate we choose to endorse,” says Michelle Steinberg, director of public policy, PPAA.

The super PAC status was made possible by the contributions of the members of PPAA who specifically supported the PPAA PAC. The super PAC’s primary focus is to endorse candidates who stand for access to women’s health, sexuality education, and the freedom for Arizonans to make their own health care decisions and choose their own health care provider.

But the support of the PPAA Super PAC is nothing without the engagement of voters like you in the primary! Click on the links to the candidates in your district. Find out why PPAA is supporting them!

Click here if you are unsure of who is running in your district. Remember, district lines have been redrawn!

Don’t want to wait at the polls? Get on your county’s Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) and receive a mail-in ballot at home!

2012 Pro-Choice, Pro-Women’s Health Primary Candidates Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Exactly How Much Money Have “Fiscal Conservatives” Wasted Defending Unconstitutional Abortion Laws? Hint: LOTS! (Jezebel)
  • Abortion fund hotline volunteer talks about the economics of stigma. (RH Reality Check)
  • Rather than comply with a federal mandate that its insurance plan provide free birth control, the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio has dickishly decided to drop health insurance coverage for students. (MSNBC)
  • In case you hadn’t heard, horrendously craptastic Arizona Rep. Trent Franks is pushing a bill to ban abortion care at 20 weeks in D.C. — even though he’s an Arizona congressman and has no constituents outside of Arizona. Well, his Republican cronies in the House are silencing the voice of Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, an elected official actually serving the District of Columbia, by denying her the right to testify at the hearing. That’s our democracy for ya. If you’re not an old, wealthy white guy with no uterus, your concerns about women’s health and rights are clearly not welcome. (NARAL Blog for Choice)
  • Undecided Women Voters, Don’t Be Fooled: Your Control of Birth IS ABOUT Jobs (Fem 2.0)
  • Do pregnant black women receive worse medical treatment than whites? (The Grio)
  • According to a new Gallup poll, the number of Americans who identify as “pro-choice” is at a record low. (ABC News)
  • When Access to Abortion Is Too Difficult, Women Turn to Do-It-Yourself Means (RH Reality Check)
  • Pro-choice trailblazer and women’s health advocate Jean Pakter has passed away. (NYT)

Special Election on June 12: Ron Barber Stands with Planned Parenthood

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It’s pretty safe to say that nearly all of the political advertisements and newspaper articles covering the Congressional District 8 race between Ron Barber and Jesse Kelly have focused on Social Security and Medicare. But, the issue of women’s health care is also critical – and one that hasn’t received much attention.

Jesse Kelly is an avowed anti-choice candidate and has received support from the National Right to Life Political Action Committee. Barber, when asked about his position on choice and women’s health care, said he has always been pro-choice and believes women’s health care decisions must be made between women and their doctors.

Ron Barber is running to finish Gabrielle Giffords’ term in the June 12, 2012, special election. Early voting starts on May 17.

“There has been too much political debate about limiting our freedoms,” he told us. “Women have the right to make their own choices about contraception and any interference from the government or employers is an affront to personal liberty.”

The debate on women’s health care used to center on abortion. It has now expanded to include the availability of contraception and the “right to refusal” –  so-called consciousness clauses that allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, employers to opt out of providing insurance coverage for birth control, and health care providers to refuse emergency care for pregnant women. Barber, as do most Americans, believes that the “availability of contraception was an issue we settled 50 years ago” and employers, insurance companies, and pharmacists should not put themselves between a woman and her doctor. Continue reading →

Life-Saving Cancer Screenings for Many Arizonans May Be Eliminated Soon

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HB2800 is being heard tomorrow, March 14, in the House Healthcare Committee.

House Bill 2800 will have a devastating effect on women’s health care in Arizona.  This bill effectively singles out Planned Parenthood Arizona by attempting to prohibit us from providing family planning services including life-saving cancer screenings, birth control, and basic health care to thousands of Arizonans on AHCCCS and Title X. Continue reading →

This Week, Say Goodbye to Birth Control and Religious Freedom

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The political assault on women’s health care that has overwhelmed America in recent weeks is reaching a climax in Arizona THIS week.

No less than six bills that will make it harder or even impossible to get various women’s health care services are being voted on in committee hearings in these five days.

Every one of these bills is poised to become law if we don’t fight back NOW and LOUDLY. Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

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  • Arizona, ever the maverick state when it comes to anti-choice tomfoolery, wants to offer doctors who lie to pregnant women complete immunity from consequences. (Care2)
  • Here’s your all-encompassing digest of anti-abortion laws around the country. You might wanna have an alcoholic beverage nearby while reading. (Jezebel)
  • Republicans have inspired a plethora of insane sex legislation. (Mother Jones)
  • A male birth control pill on the horizon? Legions of pill-popping women are waiting! (Detroit Free Press)
  • Speaking of men, where the hell are they during this war on birth control? (CNN)
  • Planned Parenthood’s fearless leader, Cecile Richards, was a smash on The Daily Show Wednesday night. (RH Reality Check)
  • More on the awe-inspiring badass that is Ms. Richards. (The Nation)
  • Kansas has gone absolutely mad with 69 pages of anti-abortion malarkey, including, but not limited to, taxing women for abortions. (HuffPo)
  • Dear Rush Limbaugh, sex is not, I repeat, not a recreational activity. (Fem 2.0)

The Senate Judiciary Committee: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Editor’s Note: Suzanne, an Arizona pro-choice activist, was present for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on February 27, 2012. She shares her experience watching state legislators debate HB2036, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks, even in the case of fetal anomalies.

When State Sen. Paula Aboud addressed us at last year’s Planned Parenthood Legislative Day, she became emotional while speaking about her experiences in the Arizona Legislature. After having attended a recent committee hearing, I now know why this fight for our reproductive rights evokes such feelings. There, I witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s start with some of the positives about the hearing:

  • women and men of all ages joining together to stand up to the Legislature
  • discussing issues with like-minded people as you wait for the hearing to begin – they usually never start on time
  • watching State Sen. David Lujan, who tried to interject reasonable discussion and later tweeted, “Committee passes bill interfering in a woman’s personal medical decisions. So much for limited government”
  • supporting fellow volunteers who are willing to share their very personal and emotional stories for the public record
  • observing our state’s political system first hand (and living to tell about it)

The bad and ugly list includes:

  • Chairman Gould telling a woman she couldn’t hold up a “Choose Life” sign so she simply placed it on top of her stroller making it still very visible to the committee
  • erroneous information being presented by and to legislators
  • vilifying a doctor trying to present information based on science, not philosophy, and enduring a grilling about the money to be made in the “abortion industry”
  • one legislator referring to a constituent as “just a resident”
  • using “creative” tactics to paste the contents of this bill that couldn’t generate enough support into an unrelated bill that had already passed the House

While preserving our rights will always mean a healthy dose of the good, bad, and ugly, it’s unfair to rely on the same people to be on the front lines. So I encourage you to attend at least one legislative hearing, send an email, or make a phone call in support of reproductive rights.

The new PPAZ Activist Council is one way for you to show your support. Visit our website for more info on this volunteer-driven project and its related committees.