Abortion supporters hold up signs condemning recent abortion restrictions and calling for the election of pro-choice candidates at a rally in Phoenix on Oct. 8, 2022. A day before, the Arizona Court of Appeals decided in favor of pausing a near-total abortion ban from 1864 while Planned Parenthood of Arizona challenges its reinstatement. /Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez || Arizona Mirror
By Gloria Rebecca Gomez || Arizona Mirror
Abortion supporters hold up signs condemning recent abortion restrictions and calling for the election of pro-choice candidates at a rally in Phoenix on Oct. 8, 2022. A day before, the Arizona Court of Appeals decided in favor of pausing a near-total abortion ban from 1864 while Planned Parenthood of Arizona challenges its reinstatement. /Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez || Arizona Mirror
Exactly one month before the upcoming midterm elections, hundreds gathered across the street from the state Capitol with handmade posters and pink flags emblazoned with “My Body My Choice” as part of a nationwide movement to protest recent abortion restrictions and call for the election of pro-choice candidates.
Dawna Marthini joined the march in Phoenix on behalf of her 24-year-old daughter’s future. The dangers of pregnancy are especially keen for Marthini, who faced the possibility of hemorrhaging when she became pregnant after undergoing an endometrial ablation, a surgery that removes the uterine lining of women who suffer excessive blood loss during menstruation.
If not for her abortion, she might not be alive today. She worries her daughter’s doctors won’t have the same freedom to provide life-saving health care that hers did.
“Politicians think they’re smarter and know better than doctors. That’s wrong,” she said.