“Decline to Sign” Discussion to keep Abortion off the AZ Ballot

Pro-Abortion Forces and the Arizona Constitutional Initiative

Pro-Abortion forces are trying to enshrine abortion in the Arizona Constitution by constitutional initiative.  The Culture of Life Ministry invites you to learn more about this initiative and what can be done to fight it at a panel discussion on Thursday, January 25 from 7-8:30 pm at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in the parish hall.  Attorney Nikolas Nikas and Linda Rizzo from Decline to Sign will lead the discussion.

Decline to Sign: Keep Abortion off the Ballot | Center for Arizona Policy (azpolicy.org)

It did not take long after the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft decision indicating the majority would overturn Roe v Wade for pro-abortion activists to put their radical dreams on paper and call it a ballot initiative. The proposed change to the Arizona Constitution leaves no abortionists’ desires off the table. It goes far beyond Roe at the expense of preborn babies and their mothers. In short, it sanctions virtually unlimited access to abortion on demand, with little room for safety regulations or limitations on late term abortion. It allows a preborn baby to be aborted for any reason, at any stage – even when he or she feels excruciating pain, even up to the point of birth.

Petitioners are out now collecting signatures to get this extreme initiative on the November ballot. They are collecting signatures for a number of initiatives, none of which CAP supports. We are asking pro-life, pro-family Arizonans to decline to sign any initiative at this point to avoid them even making it onto the ballot.

The “Right to Reproductive Freedom”:

• Is excessively broad, essentially rolling back commonsense safety precautions for women and making it nearly impossible to set any regulations or limitations on abortion.
• Calls abortion a “fundamental right,” when in reality, life is a fundamental right. But the use of the term makes it nearly impossible to regulate abortion if this initiative passes.
• Leaves little room for limitations on late term abortions, allowing the procedure when the preborn baby feels excruciating pain and must be dismembered in the womb. At this point in the pregnancy, the unborn baby has already developed organs, sucks his or her thumb, wiggles around and hiccups.
• Strips away safety regulations that have been protecting women for decades. The industry wouldn’t have to give women necessary safety information or information about options – it would send women into the abortion clinic blind and alone. All while dropping any requirements of the clinic to ensure the woman’s safety.
• Is a free-for-all abortion allowance, sanctioning “any health care professional” to perform a surgical abortion – not just a doctor. And it allows any of them to dole out the abortion pill – which must be taken within very specific parameters, or it could be not only dangerous, but deadly for the woman.
• By using the terms, “every individual” and “sterilization,” it allows boys to make irreversible decisions about sterilization, rendering them unable to father children later in life.

Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom, Doctor Victoria Fewell, Chair filed the ballot initiative and has until July 7^th to submit 356,467 valid signatures to get it on the November 2022 ballot.

Remember, ballot initiatives passed in Arizona are voter protected, meaning state lawmakers cannot change them except to further the measure’s intent.

Please join me in getting the truth out about this over-the-top ballot initiative, urge people not to sign any initiative at this point, and pray with me the abortion measure never gets in front of voters.

We knew our work was beginning anew when we read the leaked draft opinion on Dobbs. It’s not even official yet and we’ve seen a (failed) U.S. Senate vote on legislation to codify Roe into federal law. Now a broad ballot initiative to expand abortion in the state, and we can only assume the ink is already dry on a lawsuit ready to be filed if Roe is overturned and Arizona’s pre-Roe law outlawing abortion goes back into effect. None of this deters us. We have fought for preborn babies and their mothers for many years. The possible fall of Roe only energizes our efforts to see it through. Thank you for joining us in the fight and remaining committed to the end!          

ICYMI

• Read here CAP’s response in one local report covering the abortion ballot initiative.
• Read here about a conflict of interest allowing a pro-abortion judge to rule on pro-abortion activists protesting at the homes of Supreme Court justices.
• Read here how to think through the pro-abortion activists’ claim that embryos are not people.
• Watch this amazing pro-life testimony at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing on abortion
• Click here to preorder your AZ Voter Guide for the August primary election.

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