Statement from AZGP on Court Ruling to Uphold AZ Abortion Ban

Saturday, September 24th, 2022

The Arizona Green Party stands firmly in opposition to the decision by Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson allowing the State of Arizona to enforce a near-total ban on abortion-related healthcare in the state that is over a century old and not in line with current views of the electorate on the issue of abortion. This decision puts the lives, livelihoods, and liberties of all Arizonans in grave danger, and we hope and expect for an appeal of this disastrous and regressive decision.

While the GOP are currently relishing in the fruits of their decades-long attack campaign on reproductive healthcare and bodily autonomy for people who can get pregnant, the Democratic Party has sat on their hands the whole way, promising each election cycle that if we just elect a few more Democrats, they would codify Roe into law, among other progressive promises that would never come to fruition like universal healthcare, meaningful climate action, etc. However, what we’ve seen from the Democratic Party leadership in action is support for incumbent anti-abortion legislators like Henry Cuellar in TX, as well as active financial support of the very same right-wing extremist candidates that the Democrats claim to be ‘defending’ us against. 

It is clear to us and to many others that neither corporate duopoly party actually cares for the needs of working people, our communities, or our environment. They see our lives as games to be toyed with for their own short-term gain, be it through the hoarding of money or the procuring of institutional power. If we want to truly codify the right to an abortion as law, we as the progressive working class will need to organize ourselves into an independent, grassroots political vehicle to do it. Our belief is that the Green Party is the best-prepared organization to serve as that vehicle.

The position of the AZGP is and will always be that abortions are healthcare, and healthcare is an unalienable human right that must be provided to all without financial, social, or legal barriers to access. Decisions about one’s health care should be made voluntarily between patients and their providers; the government has no business dictating what health care options a patient and their provider may or may not pursue based on outdated, puritanical, and anti-scientific views on abortion.

The Arizona Green Party supports an approach to reproductive justice in the State of Arizona that ensures all Arizonans have the appropriate and necessary resources, knowledge, and autonomy to make their own informed decisions about their reproductive health. This includes guaranteed access to abortion through a universal healthcare program, comprehensive sex education that is LGBTQIA+ inclusive and teaches consent, free and unrestricted access to menstrual products and contraceptives, and a science and equity based approach to public health, among other policies.

While this is, without a doubt, a heartbreaking turn of events for many of us, we must not allow ourselves to give up hope or our will to fight for our human rights. We urge you to let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair. Connect with others that share your pain, and let a lush, vibrant, and strong community grow from the soil where our tears fall today. This is not and cannot be the last word on the subject of abortion rights in Arizona, and we must all collectively commit to continue the fight for the right to a free, legal, and unrestricted abortion for all Arizonans.

In Solidarity,

Arizona Green Party

State Committee