The future of abortion is at stake in the U.S. election — and the fight is on in Arizona and Florida

The future of abortion is at stake in the U.S. election — and the fight is on in Arizona and Florida

On a sweltering day in Mesa, Ariz., people file into a neighbourhood church to watch a town hall with Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Nearby, a mega bus is splashed with a loud message: Vote “no” on Proposition 139, a ballot measure proposing to make abortion — currently banned after 15 weeks — a constitutional right in Arizona.

Barbara Miller, who lets out a cheerful “Go Trump!” as she approaches the event, likes Trump and Vance’s tough talk on border security. But the registered Republican from nearby suburb Gilbert takes a more moderate tone when discussing the abortion referendum.

“I have mixed feelings about that, frankly,” said Miller. “I think we’re a big country with a lot of different religions, a lot of different opinions, a lot of different cultures. And I think that it’s hard to have one answer for everyone.”

When they cast their ballot for president in two weeks, U.S. voters in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Maryland, New York, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota will also vote on the future of abortion access in their states.

Miller’s stance is a window into the complicated fight currently playing out across the country — one that no longer lends itself to tidy partisan narratives, in a post-Roe v. Wade era where abortion rights are left up to individual states.

I don’t believe in all or nothing.– Barbara Miller, a voter in Gilbert, Ariz.

Party divides over abortion have widened in the past decade. At the same time, more Americans support legal abortion now than they did before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was overturned in 2022.

That leaves supporters and opponents of election amendments, which should change individual states’ policies, in a fierce tug of war to reach those who can be persuaded to vote outside traditional party lines — especially as some Republican candidates soften their stance on abortion for fear of alienating any voters.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has expressed strong support for reinstating Roe v. Wade, though some abortion activists want her to go further.

Miller, the Trump supporter, didn’t say how she would vote on Proposition 139.

“I think there’s compromises there,” she said.”I don’t believe in all or nothing.”

CBC News spoke with voters, experts, advocates and opponents in Arizona and Florida who shared how the fight over abortion is playing out on the ground in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. election.

Arizona’s Proposition 139

During a voter education event at a community college in Mesa, volunteers with the League of Women Voters of Arizona hand out pamphlets to students passing by with information on various amendments.

The group, which has a mandate to expand and protect voters’ rights, is part of a coalition supporting Proposition 139. 

“We are hearing within our own circles in the league that this transcends party,” said Pinny Sheoran, the Scottsdale-based president of the group’s Arizona branch.

She and other volunteers rallied earlier this year after an 1864 law that banned abortion in nearly all cases was briefly resurrected by Arizona’s Supreme Court.

The ensuing outcry led Arizona Republican senate candidate Kari Lake to backtrack on her previous support for the law, a later line of attack during a debate with her Democratic opponent Ruben Gallego.

Trump himself — whose seesawing on abortion has threatened to alienate voters on either side of the issue — said that the law goes too far.

A lower court replaced it with the current restriction on abortion past 15 weeks, with exceptions made in cases where an abortion would save the mother’s life, though not in the case of rape or incest.

That could be subject to change. A September poll showed a majority of voters in Arizona (53 per cent) said that they would vote yes on Proposition 139, just over the majority it needs to pass; 29 per cent of that group voted for Trump in 2020.

The same poll also showed that Trump was leading Harris among likely voters in Arizona (50 per cent to 45 per cent within the margin of error), though most trusted Harris more on the issue of abortion alone.

Barrett Marson, a Republican consultant based in Peoria, Ariz., said women have been mobilized to vote on the abortion amendment, including suburban women and independents who Trump and Lake have struggled with. The question is whether voters will hold a candidate’s position on abortion against them.

So far, it doesn’t seem like women who typically vote Republican will do so, according to Marson. 

“It appears they will vote for the initiative, but then they will also support candidates who oppose the initiative,” he said.

Recent research shows that a majority of the Republican party’s moderate faction believes abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while the party’s conservative voters maintain that it should be mostly illegal.

Abortion advocates in Arizona have positioned the issue as a personal health issue. The opposition led by a group called It Goes Too Far, on the other hand, says anything that is less restrictive than a 15-week ban would go too far.

Speaking with registered voters in Arizona, the issue of abortion seemed to defy partisan allegiances.

Erica Price, a resident of Guadalupe, AZ., who said she is a member of Navajo Nation, described herself as pro-life. She said she isn’t sure who she’ll be voting for yet.

“As a Native American, the baby is alive once it is conceived,” said Price. “I do believe that we should have rights, but there should be rights for the unborn as well.”

Annie Lewis, a member of Republicans for Harris in Gilbert, Ariz., said she was a lifelong Republican voter primarily because of abortion rights. Now a registered independent, Lewis got emotional while discussing Proposition 139.

“While I’m not supporting late-term abortions by any means, I also think that both parties can come together in a way that’s respectful to women,” she said. “For me, it comes down to freedom for a woman to make her own choices.”

Then there are Phoenix residents like Olivia Araiza, a pro-life Democrat who will vote against the amendment, and Silvia Sandersius, who describes herself as somewhat conservative. She plans on voting for Harris and against the abortion amendment.

“I’ll vote for a donkey before I vote for Trump,” said Sandersius. “I have to weigh it on the scale and he’s far worse than whatever issue is out there.”

Florida’s Amendment 4

On the other side of the country, Florida voters are similarly engulfed by the fight over a constitutional amendment that would make it harder for the state to restrict abortion access.

Abortion is currently banned after six weeks in Florida, which critics say is before most women know they’re pregnant. Earlier this year, it also became a felony to perform or actively participate in an abortion.

University of Miami student Niquelle Fleurijean said that living in a state with a six-week abortion ban is “scary.”

“If me or any of my friends are in a situation where we need an abortion, and it’s past the six weeks, we’d have to drive,” she said. “It’s a long drive out of Florida.”

North Carolina is the nearest state with more accessible abortion laws. It can take up to 12 hours to drive there from Miami.

Florida had previously been an abortion refuge for women in the South, who travelled from states like Texas, Alabama and Georgia for access to the procedure.

Amendment 4, which will appear on Florida’s general election ballot, states that no law can prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before fetal viability.

The bill was sponsored by a group called Floridians Protecting Freedom, and its opponents include a group that was created by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has said that the amendment’s wording is too vague.

Much of the battle over abortion comes down to language. Like in Arizona, Florida’s amendment proposes the fundamental right to an abortion before that viability point — meaning the point at which the fetus can survive outside the womb, generally 23 to 24 weeks into pregnancy.

Florida’s amendment would provide “a constitutional right to abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health-care provider.”

Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of Miami, is a fierce critic of the ballot proposal. 

Florida law currently states that only a physician can terminate a pregnancy. The archbishop claims this could change if Amendment 4 passes because of the term “health-care provider.”

“I hope it doesn’t,” he told CBC News. “From our perspective, in which we want to honour all unborn life, we say, ‘No on 4.'”

In contrast, advocates such as Dr. Chelsea Daniels, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood in Florida, say that the current six-week ban is designed to make doctors and patients afraid. She says that her clinic has been forced to turn away more than 700 patients since the state’s ban came into effect.

“We know that this is just basic health care, and I think that when you present it to people that way, they’re like, ‘Yeah, it is. I do support this,'” Daniels said.

Polling released early in October suggested that Florida’s Amendment 4 was falling short of the supermajority (60 per cent) that it needs to pass.

More recent polling from the University of North Florida, however, showed that it had just crossed the threshold of support from eligible voters, including more than a third of Republicans.

Published at Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:58:04 +0000

This group sends Canadians to help the Israeli army. Some say that’s illegal

An organization that sends volunteers from Canada — and other parts of the world — to work on Israeli military bases is facing a renewed legal challenge, alleging its recruiting efforts violate a federal law against inciting Canadians to join a foreign army.

The non-profit group Sar-El says it has recruited more than 40,000 volunteers from over 30 countries since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last year — to provide logistical support to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), such as packing supplies and cleaning and repairing equipment.

Daniel, a 42-year-old business owner from Toronto, is one of them.  

“For me, it was an opportunity to give back to the brave [Israeli] soldiers who are fighting. It’s a way to get involved with the war effort,” said Daniel, who agreed to share his experience with Radio-Canada on the condition of anonymity to avoid any backlash that could harm his business. 

He says he went to Israel as a Sar-El volunteer in February and August, staying both times for five days in an army base in the Negev desert, in the south. 

Daniel says he “felt safe at all times,” despite the danger of staying at a military base in the midst of war.

“I went [to Israel] with the mentality that what will be, will be.”

In contrast, in a long post published on Facebook in December 2023, another volunteer, who says he is from Montreal, recounts having spent a month alongside Israeli soldiers in Eilat, a region southern of Israel, on the shores of the Red Sea.

The volunteer, whose identity is not disclosed for privacy reasons, wrote that he was “under rocket fire close enough and to such an intensity it felt as if the air itself shook.” 

“The rockets I had only seen on TV from thousands of miles away were now fully intended to kill me and my comrades.” 

A lawyer handling the legal challenge against Sar-El in Canada says the group’s efforts are a “blatant” violation of federal law, an opinion not shared by prosecutors who previously opted not to pursue the matter. 

‘Tourists who want to help’

Radio-Canada tried for several weeks to speak with representatives from Sar-El in Israel and in Canada but they didn’t respond to several interview requests. 

An information session for would-be volunteers was organized in Ottawa on Sept. 26. Radio-Canada tried to attend, but organizers refused any media presence.

Sue Potechin, from the Soloway Jewish Community Center where the session took place, is listed as the contact person to register for it. She says the volunteers “do support work, doing things that no one else has time to do,” such as “cleaning the kitchen and sorting boxes.”

She says that volunteers are not sent to the front lines with Israeli soldiers, who are engaged in wars in the south, against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and in the north, against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The army “doesn’t let you near anything like that,” Potechin said. 

The Sar-El program is “basically for tourists who want to help,” she said. 

Volunteers also “perform duties such as packing food rations or medical kits, cleaning tanks … [and] changing spare parts,” according to the IDF website.

They live “under the same conditions as the soldiers … and wear army uniforms,” says Sar-El’s website. 

Whatever the army needs, “the volunteers are doing it,” Sar-El CEO Keren Dahan said in an interview with the American channel Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS), published on YouTube in April.

“Without logistics, even the best combat unit cannot win,” she said. “If they’re not eating well, if the weapon is not clean … if they don’t have all the materials they need.”

It is not clear how many Canadians volunteered over the past year. In 2022, the president of the Canadian branch told the Canadian Jewish News website that his organization recruits “between 100 and 150 volunteers” each year.

However, this figure is likely to be higher today. Dahan told JBS that Sar-El’s total recruitment has increased eightfold, to 40,000 people, since the start of the war. 

Since it was founded in 1983, Sar-El — a Hebrew acronym meaning “Service for Israel” — says it has sent more than 240,000 volunteers to Israel.

Reaching out to youths

According to Dahan, the organization’s recruiting strategy has changed over the last two years in order to attract younger volunteers.

“Before, it was always retired IDF [volunteers], old people in their 60s and 70s,” she told JBS. Now, the group is reaching out to youth through schools, synagogues and online. 

“We are on Instagram and this is very, very new, we’re doing … a lot of advertising.” 

The minimum age to participate is 17, though 16-year-olds can be accepted “with a parent or adult relative,” according to the website.

The cost to participate is around $120 for one week and $60 for each additional week. 

Dahan also says that around 25 per cent of the volunteers are non-Jewish. “Israel needs friends everywhere, it does not matter if they’re Jewish or non-Jewish,” she said.

Daniel, the volunteer from Toronto, is Jewish but doesn’t hold Israeli citizenship. He says he was very impressed with the number of non-Jewish recruits in Sar-El. 

“In my group, there were quite a few Canadians … but also people from Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, China,” he said. “We had a guy from South Africa who wasn’t Jewish. He was a weapons expert.”

The base he was assigned to also had non-Jews in its ranks, Daniel said. “There were Druze but also Israelis who originally came from India.”

Legal challenges

In Canada, the Foreign Enlistment Act prohibits anyone from inciting another person to enlist in the armed forces of a foreign state, unless carried out by diplomats “enlisting … nationals of the countries they represent and not Canadian nationals.”

Based on that, a legal challenge was brought against Sar-El in September 2022 by David Mivasair, an Ontario-based rabbi, and Rehab Nazzal, a Toronto-based artist of Palestinian descent. They alleged the group is “recruiting or inducing individuals” to volunteer with the IDF. 

The case was dropped a couple of months later by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) for “lack of evidence.”

But the case is not closed, according to their lawyer Shane Martinez.

“We are now in the process of appealing,” the PPSC decision, and will take it to the Ontario Court of Appeal on Nov. 7, he said.  

“Essentially what we’re saying is that the government acted in bad faith, that they interfered for political purposes,” said Martinez, who also represents the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, a group of pro-Palestinian lawyers.

“Imagine if there was an organization in Canada that was recruiting volunteers for the Russian army — they would go there and they would wear Russian military uniforms, they’d live on Russian bases, they would repair Russian weapons, clean Russian tanks,” he said. 

“The government wouldn’t allow it for a second. They’d immediately step in.”  

“It’s so blatant. It’s perhaps one of the clearest violations of Canadian law in this context that we could possibly think of,” he said. 

But the PPSC says there’s no evidence Sar-El Canada “recruits or otherwise induces” anyone to join the IDF. 

“As part of the application process, the volunteer acknowledges that they do not intend to serve, join or swear allegiance to the IDF,” wrote Marten Dykstra, counsel for the PPSC, in a letter explaining why it dropped the case. 

“While there is a connection between the volunteer and the IDF, there is no evidence of a formal relationship.”

There are currently more than 6,000 Canadians in Israel, according to Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Since August, the federal government has recommended avoiding all travel to Israel because of the war. 

“The security situation can deteriorate further without warning,” GAC warns on its website.

However, insecurity in the Middle East does not seem to dampen Daniel’s enthusiasm. He says he would not hesitate to volunteer for a third time with Sar-El.

“It’s important work,” he said. “The IDF need all the help they can get.”

Published at Thu, 24 Oct 2024 08:00:21 +0000