Two Proposed Ballot Measures
for 2024
1. Proposition 139: Abortion Access Amendment
2. Proposition 314: Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure
There had been a proposed Minimum Wage Increase Initiative which we supported, but it’s not on the ballot because of insufficient signatures.
For the full list of referendums we’re tracking, see our home page.
Proposition 139:
Abortion Access Amendment
on BALLOT: NOVEMBER 5. 2024
Result: won with 62.8%
See Ballotpedia page for more information and updates.
We regard a “no” vote as helpful to the goal of ending violence.
This is one of several trying to establish a state constitutional right to abortion, so that the legislature couldn’t move to do further restrictions.
Disability Rights
However, Arizona currently has a limit of 15 weeks, so the initiative would get rid of this and move the upper limit to fetal viability. This means that the immediate impact would be legalizing very late-term abortions. See our topic page on how this damages more than the unborn child:
Disability Rights and Late-Term Abortions
This includes a three-minute video that can be used in social media (copy the embed code), and links to studies that show what harm is inflicted on the disability rights community.
Abortion isn’t Freedom for Women
Setting aside the violence (and therefore lack of equal protection) done to unborn children, a point which proponents of this measure steadfastly ignore, the rhetoric they use about women also steadfastly ignores harm done. Here are some of the Consistent Life Network’s blog posts that explain this. They can offer good ideas for opponents of this measure to use in their work:
Abortion and Violence Against Pregnant Women
How Abortion is Useful for Rape Culture
The Message of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”: Abortion Gets Sexual Predators Off the Hook
Abortion Facilitates Sex Abuse: Documentation
Isolating Women and Encouraging Jerks
Specific to Arizona:
Planned Parenthood Whistleblower Awarded $3M, Ending Wrongful Termination Case by Brianna Smith, August 23, 2019
Sexual Abuse Documentation
Planned Parenthood found negligent in reporting girl’s abortion,
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
On May 5, the Sheriff’s Office asked the Arizona Department of Health Services to look into Planned Parenthood’s handling of a 15-year-old girl who claimed Kost had raped and impregnated her. On April 17, the girl’s mother told detectives that clinicians said they “did not want the hassle” of reporting the assault, according to a police report filed in court.
[Court case: STATE OF ARIZONA V. TYLER KOST– CRIMINAL CASE Pinal County Superior Court, Case No. CR201400949]
Health Violation Documents
Find documents at:
Problems of Planned Parenthood – Arizona
Flagstaff
Highlights from 2016 document:
The facility failed to properly sterilize instruments and textiles that “may come in contact with a patients’ blood and internal tissue.” Using unsterilized, dirty instruments on multiple women has the potential to spread infection.
Glendale
Highlights from 2015 and 2020 documents:
The facility used expired medications on patients. Some were two years past their expiration dates.
Staff failed to perform required spore tests on the autoclaves (machines used to sterilize instruments). This could lead to “a potential risk of cross contamination and infection to their patients” according to the report.
Staff failed to properly maintain, clean, and sterilize the autoclaves as per the manufacturer’s instructions. There was no documentation that the autoclaves were cleaned on a weekly or even monthly basis.
When blood dripped from a used speculum onto the floor, staff was observed wiping it up with paper towels and cleaning spray rather than using bleach and properly disinfecting the floor.
Hazardous chemicals weren’t properly labeled.
Staff didn’t properly clean and disinfect post-procedure specimen bottles.
Staff failed to clean and sanitize examination tables between patients.
According to the report, these omissions, “have the potential for non-sterile instruments or non-disinfected supplies to be utilized on patients.”
There was no designated infection control person assigned to the infection control position, no one whose job is specifically to ensure that cleanliness and proper sterilization practices were followed.
There were multiple tears and punctures in the upholstered material of an examination table, exposing stuffing. This presents an infection risk as it makes the surface difficult or impossible to properly disinfect.
A patient had an adverse reaction to sedation administered before a procedure. She suffered severely low blood pressure. This wasn’t reported to the medical director or recorded in the procedure notes. The RN who administered the sedation wasn’t licensed to do so. When asked to show what protocols were in place for treating patients suffering severe hypotension (dangerously low blood pressure) the clinic was unable to provide any. The facility also had no guidelines for what blood pressure measurements indicated severe hypotension. According to the report, the center manager “verified, during an interview conducted on 2/13/15, that there are no established blood pressure parameters for severe hypotension, standing orders, and/or facility policy that identifies the care and treatment of a patient experiencing severe hypotension after adversely reacting to a medication provided for conscious sedation.”
Tempe
Highlights from 2014 document:
Didn’t have a policy for the use, cleaning, and preventive maintenance of certain equipment used on patients, such as heating pads.
The facility appeared to be using irrigation solution (Braun 0.9% Sodium Chloride) that, by manufacturer’s standards, should’ve been discarded.
The autoclave, used to sterilize the instruments, was required to be cleaned weekly. However, the last documented cleaning was nearly three months prior to the inspection. Staff couldn’t verify the autoclave had been cleaned more recently than that.
The clinic staff failed to monitor how many cycles the autoclave was running. This was supposed to be done automatically by a printout attached to the machine. However, the paper in the printer had run out and hadn’t been replaced.
Proposition 314
Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure
on BALLOT: NOVEMBER 5. 2024
Result: won with 61.5%
See Ballotpedia page for more information and updates.
The main point of the measure is to make border crossings outside of official ports of entry a state crime (it’s now only under federal jurisdiction). It would direct untrained state law enforcement officials to arrest immigrants.
Consistent Life Comment
The vast majority of current Mexico-US border crossings are by people originating from various parts of Latin America, Africa, and Haiti. Many of these are fleeing not only poverty but violence in their countries of origin – not usually war in the conventional sense as between governments, but in some cases gang wars and similar militant groups. And in some cases, violent government repression.
The poverty connection is not just about conditions in countries of origin, but at least as much about being stigmatized as coming from poorer countries. Additionally, there’s the difficulty of traveling through Central America with ample possessions in hand.
As with all racism and poverty, practices are especially hard on pregnant women, and the children are endangered both by promotion of induced abortion and a higher rate of miscarriages.
It’s currently common for people crossing illegally to seek out immigration officials and state their intention to seek asylum and/or Temporary Protected Status (a status that applies to specified countries due to unsafe conditions). They are then detained, processed and given immigration documents related to their claims. Asylum, TPS, and being in the process of applying for either are legal immigration statuses, which means it’s really not common for anyone to remain illegally present in the US long-term, regardless of how they originally entered.
Consistent Life Blog Posts on Immigration
When Immigration Is a Life Issue
Would My Grandparents Have Died in the Pogroms?
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