PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Arizona is reporting a significant drop in abortions, resulting in the lowest numbers the state has seen in more than a decade.
It comes as Arizona’s highest court weighs in on the topic and as an election year kicks off. Although doctors don’t think the report reflects all of the abortions in the state, they do believe it accurately reports some of the fallout from the Supreme Court decision. Abortions up to 15 weeks remain legal in Arizona, but that could soon change if an 1864 law goes into effect, meaning a near-total ban. “We’ve seen a pretty tremendous drop in the number of women seeking abortions,” said Valley OBGYN Greg Marchand.
He believes it’s a direct result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022. “When this immediately happened, there was a lot of confusion on whether the law from the 1800s would apply, whether criminal charges could be filed against doctors who performed abortions,” he said.
The Arizona Department of Health Services reported abortions in Arizona dropped by 81% in the month following the Supreme Court’s ruling. A few months later, leaders cleared up abortion law and ruled they are legal up to 15 weeks. Now, on average about 50% fewer people are getting abortions each month in Arizona. “We’ve seen a significant decrease in a request for terminations. In terminations performed in Arizona, they seemed to have stalled at about 600 to 700 a month. If you look at the data prior, we were looking at about 1,400 a month,” said Dr. Marchand, who also added many women now travel to nearby states if they’re seeing an abortion after 15 weeks.
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“Now the Legislature really does have the power to change law around this very important topic,” said political consultant Stan Barnes. He believes the topic of reproductive rights will continue into the 2024 political races. “Abortion politics will be top of mind for political consultants, strategists trying to win the election for their candidate,” Barnes said.
He believes it’s most difficult for Republican candidates who are navigating a Republican primary. “It’s proven difficult in the last cycle, and it’s proven difficult in other states. Abortion is a difficult topic for republicans in general elections. So does that mean democrats are just going to win the day? No, because people are not that unilateral,” he said.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights groups, is collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. The measure would guarantee a right to abortion up to 24 weeks. The Arizona Supreme Court is still weighing whether Arizona can continue following the 15-week law or if the state should return to a near-total abortion ban.
Planned Parenthood Arizona released this statement from Dr. Jill Gibson, the organization’s Arizona chief medical cfficer, regarding AZDHS’ report:
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The Arizona Wildcats just got done hosting a big recruiting weekend, hosting multiple transfer players on official visits. By Sunday evening, it was clear that these efforts were successful, culminating in numerous commitments from the visitors.
One of the players who announced, albeit not an FBS transfer, was junior college wide receiver Jeremiah Patterson.
Patterson, who is coming in from College of San Mateo, is a perfect fit for the slot position after Kevin Green’s departure for Washington. What’s better, he will most likely slide in behind his CSM teammate Reymello Murphy, who is also heading to Tucson.
The 5-foot-9, 175 pound speedster finished his first JUCO season with 328 yards on 35 catches and 4 scores. This past year, he increased his production in a big way. He caught 55 passes for 790 yards and 11 touchdowns. Some of the eye-opening stats between his 2 seasons in JUCO are his average yards per game and averages yards per catch. His yards per game jumped from 29.8 in 2022 to 60.8 last year. For his yards per catch, 9.4 his first year to 14.4 this past season.
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On the recruiting side, he is ranked as a 2-star in 247’s internal JUCO rankings, with no composite ranking. He had 8 offers and chose the Wildcats over Eastern Michigan, UNLV, San Jose State, Georgia State and Missouri State among others.
It is clear that the staff has a strong connection to the College of San Mateo. With Patterson’s announcement, there have been 5 additions from CSM. The others are Murphy, defensive back Johno Price, edge Cyrus Durham, and defensive back Demetrius Freeney (who also committed Sunday).
ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals added plenty of talent on both sides of the ball ahead of the 2024 season.
Much of Arizona’s success will come from the offensive side of things, where Kyler Murray now enters offseason activities fully healthy with new weapons in Marvin Harrison Jr., Zay Jones and Trey Benson.
On top of James Conner, Trey McBride, Michael Wilson and Greg Dortch, Murray should have no shortage of options moving forward.
Of course, the added talent eventually means somebody will have to be bounced off the roster when final cuts are made later down the road.
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Bleacher Report believes that could be Zach Pascal.
“Similar to a few others, the Cardinals just don’t have the luxury of cutting much recognizable talent. That leaves us with Zach Pascal, a worthwhile dart throw in 2023 who logged 202 snaps at receiver but only caught four passes. He added 202 more plays on special teams,” wrote David Kenyon.
Pascal was brought in last year during the first season of Jonathan Gannon’s tenure. Gannon and Pascal had previous experience together before the wideout was brought to the desert.
Pascal was initially viewed as a serviceable, big-bodied receiver who could bring valuable veteran experience to a young Cardinals roster.
He didn’t play much in 2023, and with the addition of Harrison/Jones, his opportunity isn’t getting any stronger ahead of 2024.
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Pascal certainly finds himself on the fringe of the roster – we’ll see if Gannon feels the same way when push comes to shove.
The Arizona Daily Star Sportsmen’s Fund raises money so children from low-income households and active-military families can attend summer camp at little or no cost to their families.
Since 1947, the Sportsmen’s Fund has helped pay for 44,007 children to go to camp. We’re one of the oldest 501(c )(3) charities in Arizona and one of the most efficient, with 97 cents from every dollar going to send kids to camp.
We send local kids to weeklong YMCA, Boy Scout and Girl Scout overnight camps, as well as overnight camping at Camp Tatiyee for school-age children with special needs. Our goal is to raise $225,000 to send more than 500 kids to camp. So far, we’ve received 699 donations totaling $128,870.18 or just over 57% of our goal.
Your contribution to the Arizona Daily Star Sportsmen’s Fund Send a Kid to Camp Fund qualifies for the Arizona tax credit for donations to qualifying charitable organizations. Our code is 20450. Joint filers can donate up to $938 for 2024 taxes. Single filers can donate up to $470 for 2024 taxes.
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Gustavo and Sally Aragon, $125.
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