Organize Now to Protect Abortion Access in Arizona!

The Arizona Abortion Access Act initiative (The AAA) to amend AZ’s constitution to protect women’s access to abortion has now officially launched its petition drive under the coalitional organization of Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom. You can visit them to sign up to help the effort. You can directly register yourself in their volunteer intake form here.

Here’s a good, quick summary of the effect of The AAA by AZ Mirror:

If voters approve the Arizona Abortion Access Act, all of the threats and restrictions against the procedure would be rendered moot. The act would prohibit any law or policy from interfering with a patient’s ability to obtain an abortion before fetal viability unless a “compelling state interest” exists. That state interest must be an evidence-based law that takes into account the patient’s health and doesn’t “infringe on the individual’s autonomous decision making”. And in cases that arise after the point of fetal viability – generally considered to be around 23 to 24 weeks — the judgment of the health care professional would be held above any outside interference or restriction. 

AZ Mirror

There is so much to do! But the very first thing is to gather the signatures. Here’s why YOU should gather signatures and circulate petitions:

• Trained volunteers do a statistically much better job with over 85% accuracy than do paid gatherers, who average less than 65% accuracy. The organization is putting on weekly Zoom training sessions so that all volunteers understand all the particulars to keep that accuracy rate high. Sign up for one at their website.

• Volunteers work from conviction and passion for the issue, so they are simply better at attracting voters, meeting them where they are in creative and innovative ways, and better at explaining to voters why it matters and what the AAA does.

• Relying on volunteers is more cost-effective. Paid circulators are MUCH more expensive per signature than supporting and nurturing good volunteers. We probably need to gather between 600-800K signatures to ensure access to the ballot despite any legal challenges in ’24: that will be VERY expensive if we have to rely on paid circulators for any portion of the number.

The weather is cooling down, so strap on your walking shoes for door-to-door, stake out your local grocery stores and libraries and anywhere else you can make contact with voters, and put on a smile and educate yourself to ensure you do a legally sound and accurate job of it. If you can’t do the work, you can support it financially and donate to the effort today – dig deep!

Having this voter Initiative on the ballot will greatly drive Democratic turnout and attract independent and undecided voters to vote Democratic up and down the ticket (keeping Biden in office and putting Sinema’s seat back in Democratic control with Ruben Gallego, and generate the kind of turnout and down-ballot votes we need to flip the Arizona Legislature), and serve as a rallying contrast issue for the entire Democratic ticket, not to mention cementing abortion rights for Arizonans in a rock-solid and durable fashion.

This is, in my informed estimation, the MOST important political work in Arizona for the rest of the year and until next summer. Let’s do this!