Five Ways Arizona is Hurting Women
In an April 21 article, Rolling Stone criticizes the state of Arizona as posing “some of the gravest threats to reproductive freedom” in the country, specifically because of its long list of abortion restrictions, including a ban on abortion after 20-weeks of pregnancy, 24-hour waiting period, and mandatory ultrasound. The writer breaks down how these new measures, many of which have originated at the Center for Arizona Policy, are harmful to women. At the top of the list is the inevitable consequence of an increase in illegal abortions.
When access to safe, legal abortion is obstructed or inhibited, women will be forced to find other solutions. This is a concern we follow closely at the Center. The Rolling Stone spoke to the Center for Reproductive Rights:
Janet Crepps, senior counsel in the Center for Reproductive Rights’ U.S. Legal Program, says there’s already been an uptick in Arizona women resorting to buying abortion medication from across the border – harkening back to the days in which women of means were able to access abortion care while poor and vulnerable women were forced to carry out unwanted pregnancies or resort to unsafe methods. “This is an unacceptable state of healthcare,” Crepps says.
Other damaging repercussions from some of Arizona’s new policies—such as mandatory ultrasounds and a smaller window for medical abortions—include increased costs, more invasive interventions, and a sense of shame imposed upon women seeking to exercise their right to seek a legal abortion. In particular, the 24-hour waiting period is designed to invoke doubt in a woman about her decision and, in requiring two trips to the clinic, inflicts a burden of additional travel costs and more time off work.
