The Arizona primary election will be held on August 26, 2014, and early voting began on July 31. Reproductive health care access has been under attack, both nationally and statewide, but Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive justice. To acquaint you with our endorsed candidates, we are running a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” Make your voice heard in 2014!
Along with her extensive experience in education, Dr. Janie Hydrick, whom Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona also interviewed in 2012, has deep roots in her community. She has lived in Legislative District 18 — an area that includes Ahwatukee, as well as portions of Tempe and Chandler — for the past 22 years. She currently lives there with three generations of her family: her husband, her daughter and son-in-law, and her grandson. Dr. Hydrick seeks to represent the 18th legislative district in the Arizona Senate in order to foster economic development, support education, advance access to affordable health care, and protect vulnerable community members.
She graciously took the time for an interview on July 13, 2014.
“… Ignorance and fear rather than information and understanding have driven too many of our policies.”
How has your commitment to serving Arizona grown over the past two years? On the policy level, what has happened during that time to give you hope, and what has happened to strengthen your convictions?
On a national policy level, I have seen polls and demonstrations increasingly in favor of women’s rights to reproductive freedom. As a candidate at the legislative district level, I have seen a groundswell of support for women’s rights and increased outrage with people who pronounce their marginalization and denigration of women. Politicians who are out of sync with the majority of Americans will see their misogynistic policies and platforms fail them in 2014 and 2016.
Earlier this year, the state legislature passed HB 2284, the warrantless inspection bill, which permits the health department to inspect abortion clinics without a warrant. What do you think about the need for heightened privacy and safety for patients seeking reproductive health services?
HB 2284 is a blatant violation of women’s privacy and safety with no purpose other than to legislate anti-abortion beliefs through intimidation. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down abortion clinic buffer zones in Massachusetts, they violated women’s privacy and safety by providing free rein to anti-choice violence, harassment, and interference with patient access. The U.S. Supreme Court’s egregious Hobby Lobby decision violated women’s privacy and safety by leaving women’s reproductive rights and choices to the vagaries of their employer’s religious beliefs. Women have rights to reproductive health choices as men do, and their choices should be protected by privacy and safety, as men’s are. Continue reading