They Were Loyal Republicans — Until Trump and Abortion Bans

“I consider myself an original Republican. We used to refer to Biden and Kamala in our house as the ‘corpse and the cackler.’” “I am a lifelong Republican — of smaller government, lower taxes, not intervening in our lives.” “I grew up in the Reagan era, and Reagan was a hero in my home. So he was my hero.” “I think in this day and age, you really can’t say that if someone is pro-choice, they must be liberal.” Abortion is changing the Republican Party this election. Here in Arizona, almost one-third of Republicans say they’ll support Proposition 139, a state ballot measure that would make abortion legal until about 24 weeks. “I would say 20 years ago, that definitely would not have been the case.” We spoke to three longtime supporters of the Republican Party about how the end of Roe v. Wade is changing their vote. “I grew up very Catholic. I never knew anybody who had an abortion. I don’t think I said the word out loud until after I’d been married.” “When I heard about Roe being overturned, I was not terribly surprised. Our state law reverted back to the previous law, which was from 1864.” “No one could quite believe it. I mean, it really came so quickly.” Passed during the Civil War when Arizona was still a territory, the 1864 law was a near-total ban on abortion. “Even conservatives in Arizona thought that it didn’t make a lot of sense.” The law was overturned in May, and a ban after 15 weeks was put into place. But it made some Arizonans rethink their stance on abortion. “I had to stop and think: Well, how do I feel about it? What could the potential repercussions be? And the more I read, the more news stories I saw, the more afraid I got for women. I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am a mother of 10 and a grandmother. I do believe in the sanctity of life, but I just don’t believe it’s my right to choose for someone else.” “I think when people go through this, it is probably the most painful decision they’ve ever made. I was a delegate to the 2016 convention, and the day that we had the vote in Arizona to go to the convention, I realized that I was bleeding. Turns out that I somehow was pregnant and it had released. I went to the doctor, and I had to have a D&C. Let’s say the 1864 law was in place. Would they have allowed me to have a D&C? Would they have investigated me? 2016, I voted for Trump; in 2020, voted for Trump, but I won’t vote for him again.” “President Trump prides himself in the fact that he dismantled Roe v. Wade. It doesn’t serve women well. It doesn’t serve the country well. And so I can’t support and would say to friends of mine, if Prop 139 is your issue, I don’t see how you could support candidate Trump.” “I will always be a Republican. I listen to NPR in the morning, it reminds me every day why I’m a Republican, but I can’t see myself voting for either of them, for either party at this point.” “I will be voting for Kamala Harris. I have done phone banking on one occasion and I’ll be doing it again. This time, I think that a lot of Arizonans feel, and I feel like our vote actually counts.”