As their race for the US presidency comes down to the wire, each major candidate has leaned heavily on a favorite theme -- abortion rights for Democrat Kamala Harris and border security for Republican Donald Trump. In Arizona, their ideological duel has reached a white-hot peak, with both topics the subject of fiercely debated ballot referendums. And in this key southwestern state -- where the billionaire Trump lost to President Joe Biden in 2020 by a tiny margin of about 10,500 votes -- every ballot truly will count.
In the mid-sized city of Tucson, hundreds of volunteers in orange T-shirts were going door-to-door to try to persuade voters to back a ballot measure to inscribe abortion rights in the state constitution -- and, while they're at it, to vote for Vice President Harris. To Grace Ireland, a 26-year-old activist, the abortion restrictions imposed by several Republican-controlled states amount to "a public health crisis that Donald Trump and the Republicans have created." She added, "Democrats and Kamala Harris are trying to push us forward and protect women's health care and protect our democracy and protect all people.
" Since 2022, when the US Supreme Court ended the constitutional protection of federal abortion rights, Ireland, a registered nurse, has worked in several states where abortion is banned or severely limited. Those restrictions have had sometimes disastrous consequences for women having problem pregnancies or carrying nonviable fetuses when doctors refu.