Healthcare – Powers For the People

Unintended Consequences Will Follow Loss of Abortion Care in Arizona (video)

Posted on July 25, 2022September 13, 2022 by Pamela Powers

“Parental choice!” is the rallying cry for Arizona Republicans who promote spending state tax dollars to pay for private and religious schools.

Republicans shout “My body! My choice!” on the Floor of the Arizona House when they rail against wearing facemasks to prevent the spread of COVID.

They cry for the freedom to be unvaccinated — against COVID, measles or anything else.

They exercise their power to protect their right to carry assault weapons to the grocery store and to keep guns cheap and plentiful in Arizona.

BUT when it comes to reproductive rights and body autonomy for women, Republicans insist on government control over family planning choices that are NONE of their business. This is the height of hypocrisy. Government has no right to insert itself into private medical decisions.

Continue reading Unintended Consequences Will Follow Loss of Abortion Care in Arizona (video)

Podcast: JUNE 24, 2022 … SCOTUS Ends Abortion Rights in Arizona

Posted on July 24, 2022September 13, 2022 by Pamela Powers

Season 2, Episode 11 of a View from the Left Side is a compilation of footage that I recorded on June 24, 2022, the day the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Roe v Wade, the landmark abortions rights decision from 1973. The Roe decision made abortion care up to the age of viability of the fetus legal in the US for nearly 50 years.

Now, SCOTUS has decided that access to legal and safe abortion care is a states rights issue. Why should a person’s rights change when they cross state lines in the US? Whether or not to become pregnant is a parental choice issue — NOT a government concern.

Continue reading Podcast: JUNE 24, 2022 … SCOTUS Ends Abortion Rights in Arizona

Podcast: Leaked SCOTUS Opinion Sparks Pro-Choice Bans Off Our Bodies Protests

Posted on July 21, 2022July 21, 2022 by Pamela Powers

Season 2, Episode 10 of A View from the Left Side focuses on the fight to maintain abortion rights in the United States. [This podcast was recorded before the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision on abortion.]

Senator Nancy Barto brags that Arizona is the #1 “Pro-Life” state in the country. That’s because, for years, Arizona Republican politicians have followed the extreme anti-abortion agenda laid out by Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy. Barto often sponsors these repressive reproductive rights bills, like the recent 15 week abortion ban.

If the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) strikes down the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v Wade, in the coming weeks, Arizona’s “Pro-Life” label will come back to haunt many residents as they find their right to body autonomy removed by state law.

Continue reading Podcast: Leaked SCOTUS Opinion Sparks Pro-Choice Bans Off Our Bodies Protests

Arizona Reacts to End of Abortion Rights (video)

Posted on July 7, 2022September 13, 2022 by Pamela Powers

Planned Parenthood & Dems Press Conference

Planned Parenthood of Arizona (PP) and the Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) held a joint press conference at the Arizona Capitol on June 24, 2022, the day the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, the landmark abortion rights case from 1973.

At the press conference, PP President and CEO Brittany Fonteno said that Planned Parenthood stopped all abortion care services and canceled appointments in Arizona that day, due to multiple conflicting state laws on the books.

Continue reading Arizona Reacts to End of Abortion Rights (video)

Divided Republican Party Delays Budget & Drags Session Out (video)

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Pamela Powers

For more than a month, the Legislature hasn’t done much except pass a few bills and take random days off. The current glacial pace is the result of multiple feuds within the Republican Caucus of the Arizona Legislature.

The budget appears to be going no where. For weeks, the Republican leadership has been stuck between a rock (pleasing their Libertarian wing) and a hard place (negotiating with the Democrats). The Republican austerity budget died on a bipartisan vote in the House Appropriations Committee in late April. (Check out my late April blog post and video on that subject.)

Libertarians don’t want to spend money on anything — even to save lives. This is unrealistic and cruel when our state has $5 billion in the coffers and chronic poverty. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership wants to continue their tradition of not negotiating with the Democrats on the budget. Our ideas are not extreme; we have common sense spending proposals (like funding public education, basic healthcare, affordable housing, and infrastructure).

Continue reading Divided Republican Party Delays Budget & Drags Session Out (video)

Republicans Propose Austerity Budget. Why? (video)

Posted on April 28, 2022May 21, 2022 by Pamela Powers

According to Arizona’s financial advisory committee, the state has more than $1.3 billion in ongoing funds and $3.6 billion in one-time funds to work with as we begin the budget process. We have $5 billion.

Why are Republicans proposing an austerity budget in times of plenty? Their pet projects — like the Flat Tax, Koch Brothers Freedom Schools, results-based funding and fake pregnancy clinics — are included in this first pass at the budget.

What’s not in this budget? Funding for K-12 education (since the Republicans killed Prop 208 in the courts), maternal and child health, Housing Trust Fund, help for the homeless, eviction relief, major infrastructure projects, expansion of cash assistance to the poor (TANF), programs to address chronic poverty, etc.

When there is so much need, why aren’t we investing in the future? (This video was recorded on April 19, 2022. Read the April 26 update and see the video below.)

Continue reading Republicans Propose Austerity Budget. Why? (video)