An Argument AGAINST the Arizona Right to Abortion Initiative
We the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution.
Above is the entirety of the preamble to the Constitution of the State of Arizona. Similar to the Constitution of the United States of America, these Arizonans thank the Lord their God for the liberties later listed in the document. It then follows that these liberties must align with general traditional Christian principles, as these writers recognized their liberties originally flow from Him. As acknowledged by philosophers and theologians throughout time, rights flow from God Himself.
The Arizona Right to Abortion Initiative, a recent potential amendment to the Arizona Constitution, is currently collecting signatures so it may be placed on the Arizona ballot for the November 2024 election. This Initiative would fundamentally change the Arizona Constitution and make reversing it almost impossible. Not only would it codify abortion into law, but it would grant each and every Arizonan the supposed “right” to murder their offspring in the womb.
This Initiative begins by stating the following:
“Every individual has a fundamental right to abortion, and the state shall not enact, adopt or enforce any law, regulation, policy or practice that does any of the following…”
The document then lists the amendment’s definitions of “fetal viability,” the instances when the State may interfere, and defines “compelling state interest.” Essentially, this amendment intends to set the “right” of all Arizonans to abortion until “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.” In other words, abortion would be legal in Arizona almost up until the moment of birth.
I will proceed by laying out two arguments against the Arizona Right to Abortion Initiative.
Firstly, abortion is unethical and inhumane, causing death to the child and trauma, injury, and, in some cases, death to the mother. Forcibly removing a child, for whatever reason, is wrong, but so is confusing pregnant women who may think their only option is abortion due to their circumstances. These babies have committed no crime and, therefore, deserve no punishment.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that, from 1973-2017, 63,459,781 abortions occurred in the United States. This number is roughly 16 times larger than the population of Maricopa County, 8.5 times the population of the state of Arizona, and 1.6 times the population of California. All those people were lost through abortion.
Writing abortion into the state constitution will not slow these numbers, but rather encourage and increase them in the State of Arizona.
Second, this initiative goes against the preamble to the Arizona Constitution. In no way does this initiative affirm or uphold the preamble, that citizens are “grateful to Almighty God”. Instead, it violates this belief by violating the God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness addressed by the Constitution of the United States of America. Gratefulness to God means using the law to protect those who cannot protect themselves, not enabling violence against them.
For the sake of the young, and in recognition of the state and national preambles, vote “no” on the Arizona Right to Abortion Initiative this November. Continue to grant your fellow Arizonans the right you yourself enjoy, the right to life.
*****
Ellie Fromm is a student at Hillsdale College and has worked as an intern with The Prickly Pear since 2022. Her published articles in The Prickly Pear can be accessed here.
Follow Ellie Fromm on X (@elliefromm23).
