Will Abortion Access Rights Sway Navajo Voters in Arizona?

An initiative on the ballot this November, Proposition 139, would allow for abortions through fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Jaynie Parrish, the executive of Arizona Native Vote, a Native voter-engagement organization that supports Proposition 139, said that local community matriarchs had expressed support for abortion access in small group meetings. These conclaves include respected elders from Navajo, Hopi, and White Mountain Apache tribes.

“They’ll look around, maybe, but they’ll be like, ‘Of course it’s our decision. It’s no one else’s.’ … And then we start getting into the deeper conversations about shaming and judging,” Parrish, who is Navajo, said. “It’s been so taboo for so long, the way it’s been framed, and it’s going to take some people some time to shed that.”

Abortion access may be a critical issue for Navajo voters in Arizona as they consider their options on a state and federal level this November. Democrats argue that abortion is also on the ballot with their candidates, with Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s nominee for president; Representative Ruben Gallego, who is seeking to become Arizona’s next senator; and Jonathan Nez, the former president of the Navajo Nation who is running for the congressional seat that encompasses much of the tribe’s territory.