Latina voters are key to Arizona’s abortion rights ballot measure, Proposition 139

Growing up, Eloisa Lopez says she doesn’t remember ever talking about her menstrual period or reproductive health with her parents.

“I’m a first generation Mexican-American, and I think in our culture there’s a lot of stigma around just even openly talking about our bodies and anatomy,” she says.

Lopez was 17 years old when she took herself to Planned Parenthood to get on birth control, just so she didn’t have to use her parent’s insurance.

“A large majority of Latino households identify as Catholic households, and there’s this taboo and shame around having sex before marriage and this idea that if you end up pregnant, this is kind of your punishment,” she says.

Lopez found out she was pregnant in her mid-20s. She knew that she wanted to have an abortion. But she felt lost.

“I didn’t know much about my reproductive anatomy and I had no idea what restrictions were in place or what the laws were,” she says. “And that’s actually the experience of many Latinas.”

Nearly 20 years have passed. Lopez is 36 years old now. She’s the executive director of the Abortion Fund of Arizona , has since had two children and three additional abortions. The fund provides direct financial assistance and educational support to people seeking abortion care in Arizona.

“If I were an individual that was forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy, I would have been severely depressed, extremely worried and feeling like I was forced to endure some kind of punishment,” she says.

Across the country, the fate of abortion access and reproductive rights has been uncertain since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. Without federal protections, many states have increased restrictions or banned it altogether.

In Arizona, the law currently limits abortions to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. That law, which was passed in 2022, contains no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. The state was thrust into national news in April when the Arizona Supreme Court voted to restore an 1864 abortion ban from the Civil-War era. State legislators had been fighting in court over whether it could be enforced, or whether it had been superseded by other state laws. A bill to repeal the 1864 law narrowly passed in the Republican-controlled State Senate in May, officially restoring the 15-week law last Saturday.

Now, Arizona voters will have a say on the future of abortion access in the state. Proposition 139 on the November ballot would amend the state constitution to protect abortion until fetal viability, or about 24 weeks. Advocates say Latinas in our swing state will play a key role.

One in every four voters in the upcoming Arizona election is expected to be Latino which is a 20% increase from 2016, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials .

A new survey from KFF, a health policy research nonprofit, suggests that a large majority — 82% — of Latina voters ages 18 to 44 say they support the Arizona for Abortion Access initiative. Two-thirds of those women also said they’d be more motivated to vote if that initiative was on the ballot in November. Older Latinas, however, are more divided.

Latinas are disparately impacted by abortion access in Arizona. According to the most recent data available from the Arizona Department of Health Services , they make up 45% of the people who had an abortion in 2022, followed by White, non-Hispanic people at 33%.

Women of color already historically face more racial and gender barriers to health care, higher rates of complications from pregnancy and higher rates of financial instability. A 2023 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families shows that Arizona is home to 585,600 Latinas of reproductive age, and nearly half of them are economically insecure — meaning they are living below 200% of the federal poverty line.

“The reality is that Latina women, people of color in general and people who have otherwise been marginalized by the healthcare system are the ones on whom the burdens of abortion bans fall the hardest,” said Dr. Misha Pangasa, an obstetrician gynecologist who provides abortion care in the Phoenix area.

The stark economic inequalities exist despite Latinas being among the fastest growing sector of small business entrepreneurs. A report from the Small Business Association shows that pre-pandemic, Latinas owned about 30% of all Latino businesses. Still, Latinas are paid only 52 cents for every dollar paid to White, non-Hispanic men, according to the most recent census data.

Many Latinas don’t have insurance, don’t have access to Spanish healthcare information or don’t trust medical providers altogether. Data from the National Institutes of Health show that 22% of Latinas aged 19 to 64 didn’t have health insurance from 2017 to 2021. That’s compared to 7.6% of White, non-Hispanic women. When the state restricts reproductive care, Pangasa said, it adds to the challenges that women of color have to face.

“Any of these medically unnecessary, arbitrary political barriers that are placed on them, make it exceedingly harder for them to access the best health care.”

Abril Gallardo is a community organizer for Living United for Change in Arizona, also called LUCHA. She’s been working for years to support Latino voters’ rights and access to the polls. This year, the 33 year old is working to center Latinas in the November election.

“The voices of those who are going to be most impacted by it should be at the forefront,” she says.

Gallardo says she understands the abortion issue can be complex and can carry a stigma, especially within a community that is historically rooted in Catholicism. Ultimately, she believes everyone should have the right to choose.

“Regardless of what you believe, whether you yourself will have an abortion or not, this is an ultimate right that a person should have,” Gallardo says. “Any law that prevents people from accessing their freedoms and rights is very dangerous, and it’s not OK.”

Critics of the ballot initiative are spearheading a “decline to sign” effort. Cindy Dahlgren, spokesperson for the “It Goes Too Far” campaign says Prop 139 is too vague and would allow for “unrestricted, unregulated” access to abortion.

“Voters are not given the whole story,” Dahlgren says. “They should know the truth and they should know the consequences of passing such a broad and extensive amendment.”

The campaign claims that the ballot initiative would remove safety precautions and that a medical doctor wouldn’t be required to perform abortions.

“The words ‘doctor’ or ‘physician’ are not even found in the amendment. It uses vague language to expand abortion beyond what voters support,” Dahlgren said.

Dr. Pangasa says this is misinformation and that under Prop 139, abortion care will continue to be provided by licensed, trained medical professionals.

“This ballot initiative doesn’t change any of that,” Pangasa said. “The only thing that changed is removing all of the non-medical, bureaucratic, administrative, politically motivated barriers that people have to navigate through, which are only designed to make it more difficult for people to access that care. And quite frankly, to make them feel shame and stigma as they accept the care that they feel is right for them.”

The proposed amendment says it will establish a fundamental right to abortion in the state’s constitution and would:

• Allow abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life or to protect her physical or mental health.
• Restrict the state from adopting or enforcing any law that would prohibit access to the procedure.

Gallardo is voting yes on the proposition. She says Latinas have suffered in silence while making the important and very personal choice to have an abortion. She hopes the initiative will help create a new system that removes barriers, stigma and criminalization from reproductive health care in Arizona.

“This is a multigenerational issue,” Gallardo says. “This is about supporting our matriarcas . That means protecting the health of our abuelas, our tías, our mothers, our daughters and our own health.”

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