FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 26, 2022
Contact: Kiana M. Sears, East Valley NAACP President | (480) 442-1222 | [email protected]
ARIZONA JUDGE DRAGS WOMEN BACK TO CIVIL WAR ERA.
VOTE LIKE OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT: BECAUSE THEY DO.
September 26, 2022
MESA, ARIZONA (September 26, 2022) – Another day in Arizona, another blatant attack on our democracy and women’s bodies. On Friday afternoon, Judge Kellie Johnson ruled to enforce a Civil War-era law criminalizing nearly all abortions. It “contains no exceptions for pregnancies arising from rape or incest”1. The courts’ failures to recognize women’s constitutional right “to abortion will spark a public health crisis for Black women defined by more maternal deaths, higher rates of poverty and greater inequality overall”2.
Elections matter. Who we elect this November to lead the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has never been more important. We only have 17 days until early ballots are mailed, and everyone must get out and vote to stop this wave of fascistic and oppressive politics. We cannot allow a handful of partisan judges to drag us back to 1864. Arizona’s future remains dangerously uncertain, but each of you holds the sacred power to vote, and you must use it.
Voting is Power. Check your voter registration status, register to vote, find your polling place, and volunteer to protect democracy at the polls by visiting naacp.org/vote.
(1) https://www.azmirror.com/2022/09/23/virtually-all-abortions-are-now-criminalized-in-arizona-after-a-judge-reinstated-an-1864-ban
(2) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-06-24/black-women-abortion-roe-v-wade-maternal-mortality
Freedom Fighters, we work to disrupt inequality, dismantle racism, and accelerate change in key areas including criminal justice, health care, education, climate, and the economy. Join us at www.evnaacp.org.