PHOENIX (AP) — When Lesley Chavez found out she was pregnant at age 16, she viewed her daughter as a blessing from God and never considered having an abortion, a view reinforced by her devout Christian mother. If she had been able to vote then, Chavez would have opposed expanding access to abortion.
But 10 years later — as she and other Arizona residents prepared for a possible ban on almost all abortions — Chavez drove more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) to California to assist a friend get an abortion. That experience with someone she knew who was in financial trouble and unable to support another child was the final impetus that changed Chavez’s stance on the issue.
“I just felt like, damn, if I didn’t have anyone, I would wish someone like me was there. I want someone who won’t judge me and will actually help,” she said.
Now she’s helping spread that message to other Latinos in Arizona, one of nine states considering constitutional amendments to enshrine abortion rights.
As abortion rights groups woo Latino voters through door-knocking and Spanish-language advertising, they say the fast-growing group could determine the outcome of abortion ballot measures across the U.S., particularly in states like Arizona and Florida with vast Latino populations.
Like other Americans, Latinos have a range of personal feelings and connections to the issue that can be influenced by religion, culture, country of origin and other factors, organizers say. But their views are often misunderstood and oversimplified by people who assume they are all Catholic and therefore anti-abortion, said Natasha Sutherland, communications director for Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is behind an abortion measure in that state.
A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about two-thirds of Hispanic Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. About four in ten Hispanics in the U.S. identify as Catholics, about a third as Protestants or “other Christians,” and about a quarter as religiously unaffiliated.
Efforts to reach Latino voters often depend on one-on-one conversations — “old-fashioned, on-the-ground organizing,” said Alex Berrios, co-founder of the Florida grassroots group Mi Vecino, or “my neighbor.”
Overall, about 14.7% of eligible voters, or 36.2 million people, are Latino, according to the Pew Research Center.
In Florida, 18% of registered voters are Hispanic, or 2.4 million people, according to an October 2023 analysis by the nonpartisan Latino advocacy group NALEO Educational Fund. According to NALEO, more than 855,000 Latinos in Arizona are expected to vote in the November election, representing about one in four Arizona voters.
As the primary canvasser for the Arizona grassroots group Poder in Action, Chavez has knocked on the doors of ambivalent Latino voters, persuading them to support a measure that would guarantee access to abortion until fetal viability, a term used by health care providers is used to describe whether this is the case, whether a pregnancy is proceeding normally or whether a fetus could survive outside the uterus. She is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks aged.
Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, put the measure at the top of its election manifesto because voters kept bringing up the issue. LUCHA advocates for low-income Latino, Black and Indigenous voters.
“People started the conversation saying, ‘Oh yeah, I just heard on the news what happened to the 1800 abortion ban,'” said Abril Gallardo, LUCHA’s chief of staff, referring to the 1864 abortion ban The Arizona Supreme Court decided in April that the state could enforce the law, but the legislature later repealed it.
Another group, Mi Familia Vota, has committed $200,000 to its efforts to mobilize Latino voters in support of the measure.
The official campaign against the proposal — It Goes Too Far — has hired Hispanic volunteers to influence voters.
According to the AP-NORC poll, abortion is a top issue in the upcoming election for about 4 in 10 Hispanic voters, trailing the economy, crime and health care and about on par with immigration.
In Florida, abortion is illegal after the first six weeks of pregnancy. The November vote would legalize abortion until the fetus is viable.
“The Latino community is a big part of any campaign in Florida,” Sutherland said. “We can’t win this without Latinos, so Latino outreach is essential.”
Sutherland said her group used bilingual phone banking and canvassing efforts, held a bilingual rally to kick off the campaign, hired a Latino outreach manager and held weekly Spanish-language meetings to discuss strategy.
The opposing campaign runs ads in Spanish and has a Spanish version of its website called “Vota No En La 4.”
Berrios’ group, Mi Vecino, has focused on Florida’s 9th Congressional District, which includes Osceola County and Orlando and was the first majority-Hispanic district to meet the signature requirement for putting abortion rights on the ballot. Berrios tells supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that they can vote for him and for abortion rights.
“We saw the need for a culturally competent, bipartisan initiative to engage Hispanic voters and educate them about reproductive freedom,” Berrios said.
Particularly for Latino men, incorporating messages about limiting government decisions in family and health decisions was helpful, several organizers in Florida said.
“You need to have conversations that are tailored to the person in front of you. For people in Florida, for example, who have escaped communism in their own country, they are really moved by things that have to do with freedom and the power to determine the terms of their own lives. We try to be as nuanced as possible,” said Lupe Rodriguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice.
Rocio Garcia, an assistant professor of sociology at Arizona State University, said that over time, Latinas, including Catholics, have moved to support abortion access, even if they have not had an abortion themselves.
Alyssa Sanchez, a 23-year-old Mexican American and Catholic, plans to vote for Arizona’s measure. Her family members have supported the issue for as long as she could remember.
“You still have to accept Bibles, sayings and everything about the Catholic religion for your own interpretation,” said Sanchez, a lifelong Arizona resident. “Body stronger than I believe in anything else.”
Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, vice president for health equity at the National Partnership for Women & Families, said abortion rights advocates cannot afford to assume that Latino voters will not support abortion rights, especially in majority-Republican Florida, where voter support is at a rate of 60% is required to pass a constitutional amendment.
“If you approach a voter with false assumptions, you won’t be able to make a connection,” she said.
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Fernando reported from Chicago.
