Abortion ban hits another state with high Native population

The founder and CEO of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center said abortion rights and reproductive justice issues are a bipartisan issue. It’s an issue that she’s been working on for decades.

“It’s important for people to realize that this is about choice, personal choices and do you really want the government to be making your personal choices?,” Charon Asetoyer, Comanche, said.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, April 9, that abortion will be illegal in Arizona, home to 22-federally recognized tribes. It upholds the 1864 ban that bars all abortions except in cases when “it is necessary to save” a pregnant person’s life.

The 4-2 ruling on the Planned Parenthood of Arizona vs. Mayes/Hazelrigg case could go into effect later this month unless legal action is taken. The ruling overturns the March 2022 law that gave a 15-week ban on abortion which a lower court ruled that superseded the 1864 law when Arizona was a territory and not yet a state.

The court said the 15-week ban law is predicated “entirely on the existence of a federal constitutional right to an abortion since disclaimed.” They added the 2022 law “does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting” the 1864 ban.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in June 2022. Since then 16 states have made abortion illegal, including those with the highest Native populations: Oklahoma, Arizona and Texas.

Republicans thwarted attempts to repeal Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban, saying they need more time

In addition to not allowing abortion the 1864 ban does not make exceptions for rape or incest and makes those who perform an abortion a felony and punishable up to five years in prison.

Indian Health Service already follows a similar ban under the Hyde amendment that doesn’t allow federal funding for abortions unless the pregnancy is a result of rape, incest, or if the pregnancy endangers your life.

However, IHS does not have the capabilities of providing an abortion. Even though there are 24 IHS facilities in Arizona, only one clinic is in the greater Phoenix area. Comparably there are five Planned Parenthood health clinics in the greater Phoenix area. Tucson and Flagstaff also have one.

Traveling hundreds of miles to an abortion clinic will most likely be required if they don’t already live in a metropolitan city.

Asetoyer said women will experience the same things as the women in South Dakota face, the struggle of accessing resources in order to travel across state lines and financing the lodging, meals and procedure itself.

“It’s almost not accessible for us. That’s why organizations are trying to raise the resources necessary to be able to help women with all those additional expenses,” Asetoyer said.

An example of an organization having an abortion fund is Indigenous Women Rising that is open to “all Native and Indigenous people in the United States and Canada who have the capacity to become pregnant and are seeking an abortion in the United States.”

Asetoyer said Indigenous women have traditionally practiced abortions and received health care from traditional midwives and medicine women. But laws have prohibited the traditional ways and culture of Indigenous women’s healthcare.

“We lost so much due to colonization and we continue to lose. We were here long before the Europeans were. It’s all of these White males telling us what we can or cannot do with our bodies, with our lives, and that’s so foreign for Indigenous women,” she said.

The Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center released a report in July 2023 that outlined how the South Dakota Department of Health’s data shows Native Americans receive abortions at slightly higher, statistically significant, rates than the general population.

“While other South Dakotans may have been able to travel out of state to seek an abortion, Native people were less likely to be able to make this trek, meaning that their abortion access is even more extremely limited than others in the state,” the study states.

Abortion rights groups in Arizona are working to have a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that will allow voters to decide if there’s a “fundamental right” to receive abortion care up until fetal viability, or about the 24th week of pregnancy.

If approved, the 1864 ban would not be applicable and would bar the state from restricting abortion care from a pregnant person whose health or life is at risk after the point of viability, according to the treating health care professional.

“I think you’re going to find that most of these initiatives that will get on the ballot will pass whether or not the current administration in that state likes the results or not. It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue, it’s a woman’s issue,” Asetoyer said.