My experience with abortion motivated me to share my story in the Senate.

It is rare for someone to be at the intersection of being a patient in need of care, a legislator, and a health care provider. But that’s where I found myself in March. I’m an Arizona State Senator. I am also a nurse practitioner and mother of two. My husband and I live in Mesa, where we look after my sons, two dogs, and three chubby cats.

Life, as we all know, is about the unexpected. We weren’t trying to get pregnant. We’ve had two failed pregnancies in the past two years and have stopped actively trying. But I also wasn’t on birth control, and the moment I took the pregnancy test, I had to fight the urge to hope.

With each ultrasound it became clear that the pregnancy was not progressing. Again. In 2022, I already experienced a very traumatic incomplete miscarriage. I didn’t want to go through this again. Luckily, the option was still on the table and we scheduled an abortion. I felt calm. At least for a moment.

What followed after my procedure was ordered only reinforced what I already knew: Republican officials don’t trust women.

During my first visit to the doctor through Planned Parenthood, I shared my blood work and ultrasound results with the doctor, and we discussed how my pregnancy was not viable. Despite this, she had to ask me why I had an abortion. She was required to tell me that I could consider adoption or parenting instead of abortion. She was required to tell me that if I decided to continue with the pregnancy, my father would have to provide me with financial support. She was required to give me another transvaginal ultrasound. She had to ask me if I wanted to see it. She was legally obligated to guide me through this line of misinformation, confusion and lies.

I stopped feeling peace, and another emotion came over me, overwhelming me with its paralyzing weight: anger. As a healthcare professional myself, my wrath did not fall on my doctor; she was as much a prisoner as I was. I was angry at politicians who passed laws that forced doctors to try to force their patients to have an abortion, no matter the circumstances.

So, consequences be damned, I took back the power I had. I stood up in the Senate and told my story to the world. I said I was having an abortion, hoping that some woman would hear my story and lift her head a little higher when she had to endure the same outdated rhetoric created by power-hungry politicians. Women should not accept this experience blindly, and this was my only real opportunity to bring us together.

My abortion occurred less than three weeks before the ultra-conservative Arizona Supreme Court ruled to uphold the near-total ban on abortion enacted in 1864. The only exception he allows is if the pregnant patient is actively dying.

At any time over the past 100-plus years, the Arizona Legislature could have overturned this ban and stopped the Supreme Court from operating. Unfortunately, a bill to repeal the ban, sponsored by Democratic state Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, gathered dust while Republicans danced around the issue and denigrated women for political gain. After all, they were busy pushing fetal identity bills and finding legislative ways to punish the homeless and poor.

But with unwavering determination, this past April, Democrats used every opportunity at our disposal to put pressure on the Republican majority. The total abortion ban of 1864 was bad for their electoral ambitions, and in an apparent act of political desperation, the Republicans made concessions so that the Democrats were able to get this very unpopular and frankly terrible ban repealed.

It’s been interesting to watch Arizona Republican lawmakers falter this year. They knew that the ban was extremely unpopular and that it would cost them dearly politically. They didn’t want the Democratic bill to successfully solve the problem, but they didn’t want to anger their marginal voters by sponsoring a solution themselves.

The fact is, when the rubber hit the road, Republicans knew their position would cost them everything. There is also the fact that most of these Republicans are dealing with appalling cowardice towards the Arizona Legislature’s conservative Freedom Caucus. It is this vocal minority of extremists who are pulling the strings that will challenge Republicans in the next primary. They even released a strong statement of their support for the ban. To challenge them is to play re-election roulette. And the threat is real: they have successfully ousted several more moderate candidates to implement their far-right stooges and mouthpieces.

Now Republican leaders are back to their usual nonsense, declaring that Democrats want unlimited “partial birth abortions” on demand up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Not only will you find no record of Arizona Democratic legislators ever supporting such an idea, but there are no abortion providers in the state or country that provide such services. This proves that the tried-and-true Republican strategy lives on: “When you can’t win, lie.”

There is only one solution to this attack on our fundamental rights, and it lives at the November ballot box. We must elect candidates who will defend abortion rights across the board, from the White House to state legislatures. And the fact remains that this means voting Democratic.

Until Republicans are willing to give up on this issue, abortion rights will continue to be eroded across the country. These politicians seem to speak only one language: the risk of losing power is all they will respond to. The time to act is now.

I will continue to tell my story, without shame. We all deserve to feel at peace despite the often difficult decisions we have to make about our bodies, our families, our futures. And see you in November.