Arizona abortion-rights advocates pour $15 million into ballot measure ad blitz

A coalition of reproductive rights organizations is unleashing a $15 million advertising campaign backing abortion rights as Arizona faces a key ballot measure on the issue this fall.

The state constitutional amendment put forward by Arizona for Abortion Access, known as Proposition 139, would create a “fundamental right” to receive abortion care up until fetal viability (or about the 24th week of pregnancy), with exceptions after that point if a health care professional decides it’s needed to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

Under current Arizona law, abortion is legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the woman’s life or “for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” The current abortion law has no exceptions after 15 weeks in cases of rape or incest.

The ad blitz from Arizona for Abortion Access includes broadcast, streaming, radio and mail advertisements that will blanket the state through Election Day — and as early voting kicks off in the state on Oct. 9. The group has spent about $2 million on advertising in the last two months, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.

The group’s new ad features a testimonial from Ashley Ortiz and Vance Rogers, a couple who were denied an abortion under the state’s current law.

“Doctors told us our baby wouldn’t survive,” Rogers says in the ad. Ortiz says, “Then, those doctors told me us they weren’t allowed to help me because of Arizona’s abortion ban.”

Ortiz said in an interview that she and Rodgers were hoping to have their first child before complications troubled the pregnancy. “The baby’s foot was in my uterus, and typically, that’s a point where there’s no turning back,” she said about the complication she faced at 20 weeks of pregnancy.

“The options that we were given were to wait and be hospitalized and wait for him to be completely born, and it would be a stillbirth, or to wait until I became so sick that they had to help me,” she added.

“It was really difficult and very frightening,” she said. Days passed, and “on Christmas Eve, the baby’s heart stopped.” She was finally allowed an abortion on Christmas Day. “It was very cumbersome and difficult, and it was pretty a fairly terrifying experience for me and also for my husband.”

Arizona for Abortion Access hopes the 30-second testimonial advertisement can put a face to the ramifications of the state’s abortion ban. “I think storytelling is obviously our most compelling way to reach voters,” said Chris Love, a spokeswoman for the group.

Love said she hopes the $15 million ad buy “covers the entirety of the campaign” but didn’t rule out that the organization would launch another ad, and new investment, by Election Day.

The ad is Arizona for Abortion Access’ second spot on the Arizona airwaves. The first ad launched in September: “Imagine laying here, scared and in pain, waiting, waiting because doctors risked prison for helping you. That’s the truth of Arizona’s abortion ban,” a narrator says. “It forces women who are miscarrying or having complications to wait, wait until a medical emergency.”

A spokesperson for the It Goes Too Far campaign opposing the ballot measure, Cindy Dahlgren, of the Center for Arizona Policy, took issue with Arizona for Abortion Access’ first ad at a news conference in Phoenix on Sept. 19.

“Their ad tells voters that there is a ban on abortion, and that is not true. Abortion is legal in Arizona up to 15 weeks and then beyond that, for medical emergencies, any medical emergency,” Dahlgren said.

“As someone who has suffered two miscarriages, I find that to be a very cruel lie,” she continued.

Love defended the advertisement and the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign from Dahlgren’s criticism, calling the language in the ad “absolutely true.”

“We’re being very honest about what the status of the law is now and how Prop 139 would provide more protections for pregnant patients,” she said.