Host Brendan O'Connell speaks to John Jakubczyk, President of Arizona Right to Life. They discuss what's gone on in Arizona since the 2022 Dobbs decision.
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Life Matters
The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio at BNNMedia.org. Hello. Welcome to Life Matters. My name is Brendan O'Connell. Well, on Life Matters, we search far and wide across the fruited plain for superb guests, and we have one today. His name is John Jacobczyk. He's the president of Arizona Right to Life, and we're going to take a look at what's gone on since the DOB decision in June of 2022, that overturn Roe v. Wade. What's been going on in Arizona? Well, welcome, John Jacobczyk. It's good to be here with you, Brendan. John, what has been going on since June of 2022 regarding the Arizona Right to Life situation? Well, just like around the nation, pro-abortionists have been out, fast and furious trying to change laws or prevent the laws from going into effect or have the laws eliminated, and it's been Arizona's one of the many states that they're trying to do that, and they wrote up what's called the abortion access amendment, and they're trying to get that on the ballot. They did get it on the ballot. Now it's going to go to a vote in November, and what it would do, it would legalize abortion for the entire nine months of pregnancy. It would not require any kind of doctors or anything of that nature, and it's a very, very horrible, horrible piece of legislation that they have put on the ballot. So we have to have everybody vote no, and of course most of the people listening to this are back in Massachusetts, but if anyone is in Arizona listening, they have to vote no. But if you can get you a copy of the show and you can put it on your website, that's not a problem. Well, what was the laws prior to the pro-boys trying to get abortion up until birth? What was there some similar issue? It's an interesting thing. Once the Supreme Court declared that abortion was not a constitutional right, there was an effort made by the state attorney general to have the original law that was in effect prior to Roe v. Wade reestablished. And what was that? That law said no abortions, and it was written back in 1864, and as the city, as the territory became a state, the state legislature reaffirmed that prohibition all the way up until and after 1973. Nevertheless, there was an effort made the year after-dobs, or the year of-dobs, I should say, which they passed the bar bill that said that abortion would be illegal after 15 weeks. Now, the legislation did not say that this was to take effect only that if there was no change in the law, that would go into effect. Nevertheless, after the Supreme Court in Arizona looked at everything, they decided that the old law, the one that protected all human life, would not go into effect but the 15-week law would. So that's what we have right now. It's all convoluted because, really, they should have said the original law should be in effect, but they didn't. And then what we have contemporaneously is the abortionists putting a ballot initiative that would legalize abortion for the entire nine months, remove all protections, remove all restrictions and basically have abortion on demand for the entire nine months. So it's a real bad bill, and we are encouraging everyone, of course, to vote no. Well, is it going to be an amendment, or does it have to go through the legislature as a bill? No, no, no. It's an initiative. It's an initiative. In Arizona, you can have an initiative, it's really a referendum, but they don't call it that. And what it is, is you get enough votes, I mean, enough signatures, you can put it on the ballot. And then when it's on the ballot, then the people vote for it at the next election. So the next election is November, so they're going to vote on it in November. And what we have to do is we have to encourage everyone in Arizona to vote no on that ballot. Do you need 50% plus one vote, or is it like Florida, you need 60% in Florida? No, it's 50% plus one. 50% plus one. And the pro aborts, like they're doing here in New England, particularly New Hampshire, are they advertising really heavily? Oh, my gosh. And the advertising is done in the most insane of ways. And if you're watching something on YouTube, all of a sudden you'll see a pro-abortion ad. It's just crazy. And of course, they lie in the ad. They don't tell you the truth. They give you this impression that a woman who's having a miscarriage can't get any assistance, which is totally untrue. And they've been doing that for the entire time that they've had this ballot being proposed. So it's a very, very disgusting, discouraging thing. But we're hoping that the people of Arizona will realize that this pro-abortion access act goes too far. In fact, there's an argument being made by people who say, you know, they may not be pro-life, but they definitely don't want abortion for nine months. And they definitely don't want it to be done by non-doctors. And they definitely don't want to have no restrictions at all. So they say it goes too far. And we're just hoping that the people of Arizona exercise common sense and vote against this incredibly insane legislation. That is very poorly written, too. I don't understand why the court didn't just throw it out. But obviously, you know, in Florida, they have vague references on the amendment. They don't get into the details. Do you have vague references in-- Oh, absolutely. The whole thing is very vague, very, very misleading. And as a result, you know, they had people-- they had people signing in favor of it, and they didn't even know what they were signing. And then later, they wanted to recant it, but they-- of course, getting it recant is a little more difficult than it seems. Now, what about parental notification? Would that be wiped out also? That would be wiped out as well. Wow. That's really something. It would be abortion on demand at all times, anytime. But right now, English does not require a doctor. That's the other thing that nobody wants to talk about. But that's also in the-- in the ballot initiative. There's no requirement for a doctor. So before ultrasound, abortionists had to operate in the dark, and ultrasound made them able to see the baby being aborted. Is that the case with all of these other-- what kind of category a person would be doing abortion other than the doctor? Well, you don't know. Nurses? Practicing medicine without a license for many years, and you've had people who were abortionists doing abortions before it was ever illegal, and they would do it, you know, their cover of darkness. And who knows what's going to happen if that-- if this law was to be in effect? So we really need to make sure people do not vote in favor of this law. Was there a you and cry that I think there's a female running for United States Senator in Arizona? And I believe she was pro-life, but then she softened her position on that, or I don't know if soften is the correct word. Well, there's a person running for the Senate on the Republican ticket, her name is Carrie Lake, L-A-K-E. She's always been pro-life historically. I think she made some comments that may have been misconstrued when she started running for the Senate, but the bottom line is she'd be much better than the other fellow who's running. So the fellow running for the Democrats is an ardent pro-abortionist, and that's just one of his problems. What's his name? Is that the current governor? I mean, the current U.S. Senator who his wife got shot, she was a congresswoman? No, no, no, no, no. No. You're thinking of Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly is not out for reelection. Okay. No, the seat is an open seat because Kirsten Sinema decided not to run for her Senate seat. So the seat is open, and you've got a congressman by the name of Rugen Geiger who's running from the Democrat side, and then you've got Carrie Lake running from the Republican side. Now Carrie Lake, I would get some of her emails, and you know, she felt that in the last election cycle that was cheating going on. Would you agree with that, or do you know, or what did you say? You cut out on me. What did you say? I said Carrie Lake in her emails felt that there was cheating going on the last time she ran. I believe it was for governor. Yes. Yes. He was running for governor. He didn't win. She felt. Yeah. You know, you could spend all your time talking about the past, or you can focus on making a difference. Right. And that's what I do. You know, look, you've been involved in politics, you've been involved in the pro-life movement for 30, 40 years. You've seen what goes on, and the only way you can really deal with it is, as he would say, you've got to win by enough votes so it doesn't matter if they cheat. Right. But it still should be exposed if what she says is the truth. Oh, yeah, if you can expose it, but how can you deal with most of the time just not possible? Well, now, what about the Arizona legislature? Is it comprised of pro-life people or pro-abortion people, or is it kind of 50-50? It's got a small pro-life majority in both the House and the Senate. All right. In both the House and the Senate? Yes. And some of those people flipped and go on the other side, the pro-board side, on key votes or not? Some of them have, yes. Hmm. I see. And what's your feeling about the whole Arizona situation when it comes to the pro-life movement then? Well, we've got a lot of work on our hands. We've got a lot of work to get the message out. We just had, in fact, I think it was this weekend, the Catholic bishops all came out with a statement opposing the Prop 139, which is the proposition that favors abortion. And they all came out strongly against it. So the message is to get the word out and get the people to vote. You know, it all boils down to getting people to vote. Yeah. Do you, today, we have a primary here in Boston, September 3rd of 2024. Do you think, do you folks have a primary or has it already occurred? We've got a lot of states. Yeah. All the primaries have all taken place. Sorry. They have. When were they in June? John? I'm sorry? When were they? In the springtime June? No, they were in August. August? Wow. That's something I see. And what has been the action of the abortion two-pill protocol in your state? Our abortions increasing, I know the population is increasing because the people are moving out of California in Jefferson. But do you... Are you talking about the abortion pill? Yeah. The medical, the medical abortions. Well, I think that we've seen it as percentage-wise that that's now the majority of abortions in this country. Mm-hmm. Right. It's between 60 and 70 percent in the last time. And last time I looked. So is that the case or does anyone keep track of that in Arizona? Well, they're doing the best they can, but I don't have, but I don't have details on that. I see. Do you know anything about the abortion pill reversal? Oh, yes. I know a lot about it. And have they been... We have a number of doctors who have been involved in doing that and saving babies. And it's been a very, very possible, positive thing for women who are made, you know, made a bad decision at first, and now they want to reverse it, and there's still time. So it's... And yet you have the other side, oh, it doesn't really work, but yes it does. We have human beings that are alive and growing and living who were born as a result of the parent, the mother's decision to reverse it. Right. Well, I've interviewed Dr. George Delgado out of San Diego, and he was in another doctor. Yeah, he's a great doctor. He's a wonderful man, and he's doing a lot of great work. He is. Initially, it was, well, progesterone's been around for a very long time when it comes to pregnancies for women. And he's taken that concept, and initially, when I interviewed him, they had to put the injector progesterone by a needle. But now you can take the progesterone orally or vaginally, which is, you know, gaining a lot more acceptance out there. What sort of things is Arizona writes a life doing to wage war with this initiative that's happening in Arizona? Well, you know, we tried to address the thing with a ballot challenge. But unfortunately, they cut us off and gave us only two days to do that, which then eliminated our ability to actually make a difference. So now we just got to get the word out for, you know, we've got about 60 days until our 62 days until the election, so we've got our work cut out for us. When you say they cut you off after two days, what do you mean? Well, normally, what you would get at least a week to 10 days to challenge the signatures, but I don't know the details of how that happened, but we were cut off from our ability to really do a challenge of the signatures as to how valid they were. Do you know how many signatures they got and how many did they need? Yeah, they got apparently got more than enough. But we never really got a full accounting of the challenge. So it's the problem of, you know, when you have people who are not on your side running the operation, which is, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not talking about the right life folks, talking about the state government. So, I mean, we got a pro-abortion governor, a pro-abortion attorney general, pro-abortion, I mean, it's just a mess, it's just a mess. Well, so you have a pro-abortion governor, pro-abortion attorney general, and didn't the attorney general run against Carrie Lake in the last election cycle? No. In two election cycles, Carrie in her emails that I got was saying is how can this person be running against me and also be Secretary of State, and if I want a challenge, it's, she's holding-- No, she's? Okay, now listen. I am listening. Secretary of State is someone else, it's the attorney general, May's, M-A-Y-S, who's the attorney general, she's the one that's, so-- She's the one that what? See, Carrie Lake ran for governor, she ran against Kirsten Hobbs. Okay. Hobbs won, according to, you know, what happened. Was it Hobbs in another statewide position at the time? Was she? Yes. Was she? Yeah, I think she was the Secretary of State at the time. Right, right. And now she's the governor. Right, and, and for Carrie Lake to make a, an object, she would have to object to the person that she's running against, who is also Secretary of State. Well, you know, I'll tell you this, I'll tell you this. We waste more time talking about this stuff, as opposed to the important thing, which is how do we get the message out to the general public that they're killing unborn children, babies? They're human beings. How do we get that message out? Instead of talking about all these other things, let's get the message out that we have to stop the killing of children, unborn children. That's the message it needs to get out. And, and, you know, we can talk about all the political ramifications, but really the bottom line is, the killing babies, you know, either who are in the womb, they're doing it around the world, they're doing it around the country, they're doing it in our own state. And we need to stop it, and we need to stop it in any way we can, it's legal and legitimately. So that's got to be our effort. And so what, what kind of measures are you taking to do that? Are you, are you doing an internet campaign or are you advertising? Well, we've got all sorts of things going on, we've got all sorts of efforts that are being marshaled by, by our pro-life community and our, and our right to life advocates and, and the members of Arizona Right to Life and. Do any, do any of them come to mind as that are particularly important? What, what did you say? I'm sorry. You said that the number of efforts that Arizona Right to Life. Okay. First of all, okay. I'll tell you. Here's what we are doing. At the, at the local level, we're on the streets. We're, we're standing out there offering help to these women. That's, that's, that's the on the ground, boots on the ground efforts. Then, and then you move up the level, then you have the pregnancy centers that are there offering help to the women. And they're doing that all the time. And we've got five really good pregnancy centers in the metropolitan Phoenix area that are making a real big difference. And then you move up the level, then you've got the, the people who are either running for office or else they're speaking to the issue. We've got the candidate surveys that we put out. We have speakers throughout the state as much as we can get them. Although these days, nobody wants to talk about the issue. That's the other thing that when it comes to talking about the pro-life issue, nobody wants to hear our side. But boy, I'll tell you, they will, they will spend the money to put the wrong story, the lies out to the public. So, I mean, that's what's going on in Arizona. I don't know what's happening in other states, but that's the best we can do out here. And we've got candidates who are running, and we hope that they win. Do you counsel your candidates on how to answer some of the objections that the pro-boys put out? We have over the years, and I haven't, I haven't had any conversation with anybody, you know, lately. But over the years, I've done a lot of counseling of candidates. So they knew, they knew the answer, they knew how to explain the answer, they weren't afraid to talk about it. And they talked about it in a way that showed that they cared about the woman and the baby. Hmm. Hmm. Well, very good. Well, I know here in Massachusetts, we get a channel nine, if you don't have cable, from New Hampshire. And there has been a, today it's their primary also, as it is in Massachusetts. And I can't get over the number of commercials, everyone trying to say that they're pro-abortion, including Kelly Aiot, who was a Republican, who says, "Well, for the first six months in New Hampshire, you know, you can have an abortion no matter what." And- You said Kelly Aiot is now pro-abortion? Yeah. Yeah. Well, she, that's what she, her advertisement. And then she says, she's countering another woman who had a child with a fatal fetal anomaly, meaning that the child wouldn't live much beyond the time of birth. And this woman, the ad that attacks Kelly Aiot, says that, you know, she had to have an abortion and it was cruel for her to have to carry the baby to term. And, you know, she even uses the word cruel. So everybody seems to be a pro-abort that I've seen on the television ads. Well, they're going to all have to answer the good Lord. That's the bottom line. Yep. Yeah. We do the best we can. We offer our help, our support, you know, financially if possible, emotionally and materially if possible, and try and offer, you know, help to the woman, help to the baby. You know, there's never a reason that a woman has to have an abortion. You know, oh, we have this difficult situation. How many of those historically happen? You know, one in a million, one in a thousand, one in ten thousand, you know, we don't know. But they want to all say it's like every day, that's the thing that's, that just makes no sense. Yeah. They want to stop this killing of unborn children by women who are having either pressure put on them or they're under, under duress. A lot of them, most of them, later say they wish they didn't have the abortion. Right. But our job is just to offer the help. We offer the help. We try and do the best we can. I see. Well, John, if folks want to find out about your organization, where do they go? Do you know? You can go to arizonarightthelife.com. Uh-huh. That's probably the easiest thing for, if you're calling from, from back there. And uh... Okay. All right. All right. Very well, John. Well, thank you for making time today, uh, on relatively short notice. We're very appreciative for that. Brandon, you know I'm always there for you, buddy. Okay. And folks, we hope you found today's show to be unique and informative. You can't reach truthful and thought provoking. Thanks for watching and listening. My name is Brendan O'Connell, your friend for life. The preceding commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio at bnnmedia.org. [BLANK_AUDIO]