An extraordinary grassroots activation took place this past Saturday at 8 a.m., when two buses full of organizers, activists, celebrities, politicians, doctors and influencers braved the Phoenix heat—which would top out at 107 degrees by the afternoon—to set out on the inaugural Vote for Abortion Bus Tour and Rally, a nationwide campaign to register voters and protect abortion access and reproductive healthcare during another contentious and precarious election season.
First stop on the tour was the Uptown Farmer’s Market in North Phoenix, with its selection of local vendors, hosted on the grounds of a sprawling Baptist megachurch. This might seem like an imposing venue when you’re wearing “Vote for Abortion” T-shirts, but that didn’t stop dozens of enthusiastic volunteers from entering the fray to pass out free Julie emergency contraception and talk to people about registering to vote.
Actor Jodie Foster and media strategist Patti Röckenwagner were among those determinedly approaching every person they could to encourage voter registration. Even when Foster was told she “couldn’t be here wearing a shirt like that” by one vendor or Röckenwagner got drawn into a five-minute, but mostly cordial, conversation with a man who proclaimed “abortion is murder,” they remained cheerful and undeterred. And while there were some apathetic passersby, just as many were excited and supportive, ready and willing to go to the polls in November. When one woman expressed a desire to have a “Vote for Abortion” T-shirt of her own, Foster took her shirt right off her back and gave it to her.
“This is really about fundamental human rights. And it’s no accident that it’s happening now,” Foster told me an hour later back on the bus, as we moved on to our next destination. “I’ve lived under so many different administrations, but I’ve never felt the kind of war on civil rights that we’re feeling now. And the new generation doesn’t know.”
Foster worries that some voters, especially young voters, have been so affected by extremist propaganda that they’ve become apathetic.
“They’re trying to get you to think it’s hopeless and to not engage,” she added. “That’s the really dangerous part, is the hopelessness.”
I’ve lived under so many different administrations, but I’ve never felt the kind of war on civil rights that we’re feeling now. And the new generation doesn’t know.
Jodie Foster
Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, an emergency room physician who’s twice run for Congress in Arizona to “to fight for healthcare rights and access and equity,” shared Foster’s sense that voting is integrally important to combating the effects of restrictive reproductive rights laws, and especially cited the push to get abortion protection on the ballot in Arizona this fall.
Curtailing reproductive freedoms is “going to impact everybody, especially the younger generation,” so voting is imperative, urged Tipirneni. “As a healthcare professional, we don’t want anyone else dictating how to best care for our patients. We know this should be based in science and in medicine and not in politics.”
Tipirneni was one of several doctors who joined the Vote for Abortion tour and rally, a cohort that included Dr. DeShawn Taylor, CEO of Desert Star Institute for Family Planning in Phoenix, who spoke passionately at the rally about the importance of her work as an abortion provider. Representatives of Doctors for Fertility (DFF), a national group that formed after being inspired by grassroots organizing around reproductive healthcare in Nebraska, were also on the bus and out interacting with the public, including Drs. Serena H. Chen, Lucky Sekhon, Stephanie Gustin and Abigail Delaney.
As a healthcare professional, we don’t want anyone else dictating how to best care for our patients. We know this should be based in science and in medicine and not in politics.
Dr. Hiral Tipirneni
“As a fertility doctor, we have seen and we’ve predicted that with the overturn of Roe, that all facets of reproductive care would be impacted,” said Dr. Gustin, who lives and works in Omaha. “We’ve seen it happen in states like Alabama, and we know that there are plenty of states that are at risk for losing access to not just abortion care, but fertility care, IVF care.”
Dr. Delaney further emphasized the importance of thinking nationally rather than just regionally: “It’s not fair for certain women to have different healthcare needs and different healthcare rights in different states.” She hopes that ballot initiatives like the one in Arizona and the advocacy work of organizations like Vote for Abortion and Doctors for Fertility can help restore protections that were in place pre-Dobbs.
But these efforts have to go beyond Arizona and other battleground states, argued Dr. Chen, a co-founder of DFF who works in the ostensibly “safe” state of New Jersey: “We are literally criminalizing healthcare in the United States. People in New Jersey think that if you throw a doctor in jail or threaten to throw a doctor in jail in Texas that [they’re] going to be fine.” Instead, abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive rights are “basically dismantling the healthcare system, and that doesn’t affect just pregnant women.”
Dr. Sekhon, based in New York, also believes in the importance of representation from the medical profession across state lines.
“It speaks volumes when you have the privilege to work somewhere where you’re not threatened with these restrictions,” she said. “But you still care enough about all patients, regardless of their zip code, having access to the full spectrum of reproductive care.”
Actress and advocate Busy Philipps, who grew up in Arizona and still has family here, experienced firsthand the importance of accessible reproductive healthcare when she had an abortion at 15 that granted her continued agency over her own life. On our way to our next stop, Maya Day Club, one of the hottest destinations for bachelor and bachelorette parties in the Southwest, Philipps lamented the shock she still feels every time a decisive blow is dealt against abortion access.
“It was a long game always. It was always a plan. Incremental change is hard for people to wrap their heads around,” said Philipps. “And I know it’s hard for young idealistic people to wrap their heads around. I get it because I would love to burn everything to the ground as well. I also know—and we have the playbook from another side—that incremental change is why Roe fell.”
It was the fall of Roe v. Wade, said Philipps, that “made it very abundantly clear to me that we have no choice but to continue to show up, use our voices, tell our stories free of shame, and not be afraid to stand up for equality, which is what reproductive justice is all about.”
And I know it’s hard for young idealistic people to wrap their heads around. I get it because I would love to burn everything to the ground as well. I also know—and we have the playbook from another side—that incremental change is why ‘Roe‘ fell.
Busy Philipps
Amanda Zurawski, whose own harrowing experience under Texas’ near total abortion ban led to her almost dying after a medically necessary abortion was delayed until she went into septic shock, is glad to engage in advocacy work as part of the Vote for Abortion activation. Activists in Arizona have “done a lot of work to protect abortion care in this state,” said Zurawski.
“But what’s scary is that if we have the wrong people in office in November, nobody’s going to be safe because they will enact a total abortion ban nationwide. Even on a local level, if you elect the wrong people, as we know in Texas, things can change very quickly, and so we’re just trying to get people to realize that you might feel like you’re safe, but really no one is safe with the wrong people in office.”
Exactly, added her husband, Josh. “You have to keep voting because if you stop and you let your guard down, things can change so fast.”
At Maya Day Club, most of the volunteers stayed outside, handing out free emergency contraception to a growing contingent of bikini-clad twenty-somethings lining up to get in despite the noon-day heat. Philipps and a few others ventured inside the club, where they secured tables and mingled—and left feeling inspired by the enthusiasm of the poolside partygoers who seemed genuinely invested in reproductive rights in Arizona and other states from which some were visiting.
“I would say probably over half of the people I spoke to were registered to vote and were planning on voting, so that felt really great,” said Elsa Collins, co-founder of The Ideateur, a social impact and political consulting group, after emerging from the club and re-boarding the bus. A lot of her work is with the Latina community, and she’s painfully aware of the way restrictions on women’s reproductive health especially adversely affect Black and brown women.
“Birth control should be accessible,” urged actress and advocate Melissa Fumero, who was handing out emergency contraception to the people in line, “These are fundamental human rights to me. It’s astonishing that it’s such a debate.”
Lilliana Vazquez, an Emmy-winning host, content creator, and stylist, added how important it is to raise awareness, particular among younger demographics, with just the kind of grassroots action made possible at the day club: “It’s not just a decision for you; it’s a decision for your community. And it’s ultimately a decision that has impact far reaching beyond these four years or the four years that come after it.”
If family is central to you, if community is central to you, if your mom, your sister, women—if people are important to you, then this is an issue that you want to vote on.
Lilliana Vazquez
Vazquez never thought that her own reproductive healthcare would be at risk, so she thinks it’s vital to remind people the power they have when the vote. “I think automatically abortion is such a hot topic, but it goes so far beyond that,” she stressed. “If family is central to you, if community is central to you, if your mom, your sister, women—if people are important to you, then this is an issue that you want to vote on. You want to expand women’s rights, you don’t want to contract them, right?”
By the time the Vote for Abortion buses made it to the 2 p.m. Freedom Rally in front of the Arizona legislature, it was well over 100 degrees, but neither the volunteers nor the attendees were deterred by the heat. Led by host Deja Foxx—a social media influencer who became an activist as a teen in Tucson, Ariz., advocating for comprehensive sex ed—the rally included an impressive panoply of speakers, including Foster, Dr. Taylor and Zurawski, as well as Vote for Abortion co-organizer Jenny Kay, state Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D), activist Parris Wallace and multi-platinum recording artist and advocate Lauren Jauregui.
“We’re reclaiming freedom and autonomy over our bodies and that’s what unites us,” said Foxx, at the opening of the rally. Arizona is a fulcrum in the fight for reproductive rights and systemic change can only happen from the ground up. Philipps, for her part, urged Arizonans to pay attention; after all, “we only need to flip two seats in each chamber at the state level in order to completely shift the power in the state.”
This is a critical and urgent moment, in Arizona and elsewhere.
“We as a country have inherited fucking trauma,” said Philipps. “I do think, unfortunately, because of the tales we tell, we’re expecting a Superman to come along and save it all. That does not exist.” Instead, she added, “There’s an opportunity and a real chance to turn it around and to make this state more reflective of the diversity and the people that live in it.” And that’s definitely something worth fighting for.
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