Who's in control?

Women's bodies and water bodies … Rudy investigates the jurors … And big puppet, little hands.

Hey readers!

Today, we’re serving up a double dose of different perspectives.

First up, we’ve got an op-ed from Tucson mom Kristin Gambardella on why she is voting for Prop 139, the Arizona for Abortion Access Act.

She’ll tell you about her own abortion for a very wanted pregnancy and why Arizona’s existing 15-week ban doesn’t do enough to protect women’s health and rights.

Then, Cochise County water wonk Christian Sawyer dives into Arizona’s struggles to preserve its most valuable resource.

It’s a fascinating little series he wrote for our Southern Arizona sister ‘sletter, the Tucson Agenda, that explains the context, history and future of Arizona water wars.

Take it away, contributors…

On the last night of my pregnancy, I fell asleep in a strange short-term rental in New Mexico, holding my husband and trying to cherish my last moments with my baby.

I should have been with family, giving our baby girl love, mourning our loss, and grieving at home in Tucson.

But Arizona’s abortion laws made that impossible.

Instead, my husband and I had to leave Arizona to get the healthcare that we needed after making the impossible decision to end our desperately wanted pregnancy.

That’s why I’m voting yes on Prop. 139, the Arizona for Abortion Access Act.

Arizona currently has a 15-week ban on abortion — there is still so much to learn about the viability of a pregnancy at this gestation. I am still unsure what the significance is of the number 15. The CDC reported that 93% of abortions happen in the first trimester (during or before the 13th week).

Abortions, like mine, that happen after the first trimester are likely due to medical conditions of either the mother or the baby.

Proposition 139 would establish a fundamental right to abortion by amending Arizona’s Constitution. This Act would legalize abortion until fetal viability with exceptions regarding the health of the pregnant person.

I’m voting yes to keep the politics out of our bodies.

After giving birth to our beautiful son in 2021, we decided to try for a second child. When we got pregnant in 2023, we were ecstatic. My first pregnancy was flawless and our son is healthy. We had no reason to think our second pregnancy would be any different and we started planning for the arrival of our baby girl.

Things were going really well until an abnormal test in the second trimester changed our lives. Three different doctors confirmed that our daughter had a long list of medical anomalies, including one that would require her to have surgery while still in my womb, just for her to even have a chance of making it to term.

What’s more, even if she survived that incredibly complex surgery and then labor, our baby girl would only live a short life full of pain, surgeries, and constant medical care.

The doctors told us we also had the option to end our pregnancy and save her from that existence.

But because we were past the arbitrary time limit for care, doctors told us they could not perform that procedure here because of Arizona’s abortion ban.

I was in shock — there was always an implication of an abortion meaning wanting to end a pregnancy. But I wanted this pregnancy to continue more than anything.

With unbearable emotional pain, my husband and I made the heartbreaking decision to travel to New Mexico to end our pregnancy.

I was devastated, but also angry. Angry that politicians who knew nothing about our situation had more control over our lives than we did, with our team of doctors and our family.

When we arrived at the clinic, we were greeted by protesters yelling at me that they could save my baby. They couldn’t. If they only knew. Yet again, people with no knowledge of our situation were making judgments of me and our family. It hit us that no matter how someone personally feels about abortion, in this country, they shouldn’t be allowed to control what someone else does with their own body.

Neither the government nor other people should have more say over your personal healthcare decision than you do. Every pregnancy is different. Every patient is different.

Arizona’s current ban ignores that and says politicians have more say than women with their doctors.

Before it happened to me, I never thought abortion bans would affect my family. But now that Arizona’s cruel law has touched my life, I won’t stay silent.

I find hope in knowing that we can protect abortion access in Arizona by voting “yes” on Proposition 139. I don’t want any family to go through what I experienced. These private, personal decisions should be kept between a woman, her family, and her doctor. And everyone should be able to get the healthcare they need close to home.

---

Gambardella is a stay-at-home mom with a background in social services living in Tucson with her husband and son.

We’re not huge water policy buffs. (The topic is a bit … dry … for us.)¹

But Cochise County water wonk Christian Sawyer makes it fun.

Doubt that’s possible?

He and his friends mapped the local aquifers and turned it into a game of “RISK.”

Evidence of Cochise County’s DIY spirit, shared from Sawyer’s local newsletter.

So trust us when we say the three-part deep dive into the water wars of Cochise County that the Tucson Agenda commissioned from him this week is well worth your time.

• The first part explains the battle of the basins happening in his corner of the state, where the ground is erupting in literal sinkholes from over-pumping.

• The second part is a speedy overview of 130 years of Arizona water policy history that actually won’t put you to sleep.

• And finally, he examines the politics of regulating water and the lawsuit that he’s part of against the Department of Water Resources.

---

Sawyer is the author of his own wonderfully weird newsletter about off-grid homesteading and other rural issues. He also copy-edits the Agenda.²

Not a scintilla in sight: The judge overseeing Arizona’s fake electors case said Rudy Giuliani’s claim his charges are based on political bias “pure speculation and abject conjecture,” but still ordered the Attorney General’s Office to look into the political affiliation of the jurors who indicted him, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer writes. Giuliani’s defense wants to see their voter registration cards.

“He claims that there is concern that the grand jurors that served on the grand jury that indicted defendant Giuliani were selected based on their political party affiliation,” the judge wrote. “Yet he alleges not one scintilla of information that would support his claim.”

Stagnant water: Bipartisan discussions on rural groundwater management have not resulted in a deal, mostly because they haven’t been happening, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. Gov. Katie Hobbs has repeatedly said “meetings” were happening, but there was only one meeting, and Republicans claim Hobbs and legislative Democrats never followed up on it. Hobbs’ office says Republicans have blown off their request for meetings post-session.

Unearthed details: The State Bar of Arizona may have known former Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel’s husband was abusing her as they were investigating her conduct in office, the Phoenix New Times’ Stephen Lemons writes. An affidavit from 2022 shows a county attorney’s office employee said Adel told her about the abuse, “and that her security detail had seen her bruises." Adel resigned in April of that year and died of organ failure a month later. Her husband went on to commit a double murder-suicide.

The dark horse: Progressive groups are attacking Phoenix City Council candidate Michael Nowakowski in a new series of signs claiming he has a “history of corruption” and denouncing LGBTQ rights, per the Republic’s Taylor Seely. The Working Families Party PAC paid for the signs, and it is backing Sen. Anna Hernandez for the District 7 City Council seat. The signs refer to Nowakowski objecting to same-sex marriage in 2016 and previous conflict-of-interest investigations.

"(Nowakowski is) a potential dark horse... Someone who kind of flies under the radar but has the potential to win if you don't pay attention to him," the PAC’s campaign director, Matthew Marquez, said.

Not green enough: The Sierra Club has backed all of Arizona’s Democratic U.S. House candidates, except Yassamin Ansari, the Republic’s Laura Gersony reports. Ansari was a climate adviser on the United Nations team and pushed for electrifying Phoenix’s bus fleet as a City Council member, but environmentalists have criticized her for taking campaign money from cryptocurrency backers, which has a huge ecological footprint. Meanwhile, conservation groups want an investigation into a railway project that will cut through wildlife in Sonora, per KJZZ’s Alisa Reznick.

We don’t have any Bitcoin benefactors keeping the Agenda in business. But we’d like one! If you got rich on Dogecoin, please consider donating it all to local news. Or just click the button.

#LockThemUp: The Department of Justice talks a big game about protecting local election workers facing increased threats from election deniers, but “we haven’t seen the action match their words,” Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman told the Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez. Hickman is among many local election officials who want more prosecutions, which are generally tough because of free speech protections.

This 40-foot-tall marionette of a buck-naked Donald Trump that’s traveling the country and appeared in Phoenix yesterday is pretty wild.

But 12News’ passive description of it is what really made us chuckle.

1. Sorry. Sorry. It won’t happen again.

2. Though Hank often adds typos back in after Christian is done proofing.