OPINION: As an Arizona OB-GYN, this is why I want to see Prop 139 pass

As an abortion provider, I can say with confidence that Proposition 139 won’t remove evidence-based safety and health standards, nor will it change the requirement that abortion be provided by qualified, licensed medical professionals.

Having been an OB-GYN for 34 years, and an abortion provider for the last 20 years, I have worked in Massachusetts as well as Nevada and Arizona, the latter two states in which I continue to practice. In the time I have practiced in Arizona, I have worked under a state government that year after year chipped away at abortion rights. I always hoped that the citizens of Arizona would someday demand that their freedom to make their own health care decisions be protected, as voters in other states have done.

Now that day has come. This November, Americans in states across the country will have the opportunity to vote directly on enshrining the right to abortion in their state constitutions. In total, millions of Americans have signed petitions to put measures on the ballot, demonstrating overwhelming support for reproductive rights.

This vote can’t come soon enough for patients like mine. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, it’s been a rollercoaster for patients and physicians in Arizona. Today, Arizonans are living under an abortion ban with no exceptions for victims of rape and incest nor for women experiencing severe medical complications after the arbitrary limit of up to 15 weeks.

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Arizona’s abortion ban is actively putting my patients at risk. For example, if a patient is 16 weeks pregnant when her water breaks, she loses amniotic fluid, and the fetus will not survive after birth. Meanwhile, she’s at risk of a severe infection that antibiotics cannot treat. Ending the pregnancy by abortion can prevent severe illness, death or loss of fertility.  Yet I cannot help her under Arizona law. I want to intervene before she becomes severely ill, but Arizona law forces me to wait till she’s at death’s door before I can act.  Even then, I don’t know if a politician or prosecutor with no medical training may disagree with my decision.

Women and their doctors should never be put in these situations—and Arizonans clearly agree. Proposition 139, the Arizona Abortion Access Act, which we have the opportunity to vote on in November, was validated for the ballot after more than 7,000 Arizona volunteers collected the most signatures ever gathered in state history. Recently as I walked toward Chase Field to enjoy a baseball game, I thought of the many volunteers I had seen over the spring and summer standing in the heat outside the stadium helping to collect those signatures.  Now, however, there are different people outside.  These people are distributing literature filled with disinformation about proposition 139.

These extremists falsely claim that the initiative will remove safety precautions and allow anybody to perform an abortion. They falsely claim it will allow for “abortion up until birth.”  These lies are just that—lies. As an abortion provider, I can say with confidence that Proposition 139 won’t remove evidence-based safety and health standards, nor will it change the requirement that abortion be provided by qualified, licensed medical professionals. And there is absolutely, absolutely, no such thing as “abortion until the moment of birth.” These are lies that not only deceive voters but put women in danger because the reality is; arbitrary partisan bans are what harm women’s health, not laws that put healthcare decisions where they belong: in the hands of patients and their healthcare team.

Proposition 139 is simple: It restores Arizonans’ freedom to make our own health care decisions, without government interference. As a physician, an Arizonan, and an American, I hope to see Proposition 139 and the measures in other states pass this November. Together, we can push back against disinformation and anti-abortion extremism, and ensure personal medical decisions remain between patients and their physicians—not politicians.

Are you ready to vote? See who’s on your ballot and make a voting plan here.

READ MORE: A first-timer’s guide to voting in Arizona in 2024