The Copper Courier: Letter to the editor: Our Voice Our Vote supports Proposition 139

A woman poses for pictures after attending an event with US Vice President Kamala Harris on reproductive freedom at El Rio Neighborhood Center in Tucson, Arizona, on April 12, 2024. The top court in Arizona on April 9, 2024, ruled a 160-year-old near total ban on abortion is enforceable, thrusting the issue to the top of the agenda in a key US presidential election swing state. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

By Sena Mohammed

October 9, 2024

Arizona’s abortion ban has made it all the more difficult for Black and Brown women to access the important and often life-saving care they need.

Our Voice, Our Vote Arizona is the largest organizing group of Black voters in the state. We are proud to support Arizona Prop 139 because we trust women and their families to make their own healthcare decisions. Politicians are not healthcare experts. They shouldn’t be deciding when or why we can get emergency care. They shouldn’t be deciding women’s fates. 

Even before Arizona’s restrictive abortion ban went into effect, pregnant women of color faced numerous financial, geographical, and logistical barriers to high-quality reproductive healthcare. 

Black women in America have long experienced disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality, and Arizona’s abortion ban has made it all the more difficult for Black and Brown women to access the important and often life-saving care they need.

Prop 139 is about restoring access to safe and legal abortion and putting the power back where it belongs: in the hands of women, not politicians. A majority of Arizona voters support a woman’s right to decide. Join all of us in protecting our freedoms from a few politicians. Vote YES on Prop 139 this November.