Senator Kelly seeks to learn reverberation of historic abortion bans reconstituted
Staff Reports | Digital Free Press
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Tempe last week where representatives say he meet with staff and providers to discuss the challenges faced by the back-and-forth provisions of local and national abortion bans.
During his visit, Sen. Kelly toured the facility and met with Planned Parenthood Arizona President and CEO Angela Florez and health care providers to hear their experiences and learn more about the services offered on site.
Following the tour, Sen. Kelly highlighted the chaos and uncertainty Arizona women and doctors are living under and emphasized the long-term impact of restrictive laws on the state’s healthcare workforce.
“Women used to have the right, here in our state, to make this decision — which is often a hard decision — but make it with them and their doctor,” Sen. Kelly said in a prepared statement of the 1864 abortion ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court. “And now that right is gone. And as Angela talked about, it’s very confusing.”
Sen. Kelly points out the effect of recent abortion rulings is having more effects than one on the Arizona economy.
“The number of residency applications to be a resident, to become a doctor in our state, providing any kind of care—those applications are down 20%, and for OB/GYNs the number of applications is down 25 percent,” he said. “…Ultimately, the answer to this is to codify Roe at the federal level.
