On Tuesday, a trio of prominent Republican women — former state Senator Heather Carter, former Phoenix Vice Mayor Peggy Neely, and business owner and political activist Lisa Hoberg — gathered in the Capitol Rose Garden on Washington Street to denounce their fellow Republican and endorse his opponent and Democrat, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly.
Their very public split with Masters was all about abortion. Abortion is illegal again in Arizona, and Masters, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate, wants a national ban. He's also called abortion “demonic” and equated it to “religious sacrifice” and “genocide.”
Carter said he's gone too far.
“Blake Masters is too extreme for Arizona,” Carter said. “The majority of Arizonans want some sort of exception for rape and incest. That does not exist in the bill today, and Blake Masters wants to take this type of a prohibition nationally.”
Carter, a 10-year veteran state lawmaker, served in the same chamber as Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who’s pitted against Kari Lake in the governor’s race. She applauded Hobbs’ willingness to cross the aisle and said that Hobbs and Kelly are more reminiscent of the “pragmatism of [former U.S. Senator John] McCain” than any current Republican on the statewide ticket.
'I Would Have Died'
For Carter and so many other women, it all comes down to Masters’ talking points on abortion.
“I think it's always kind of a ‘gotcha’ to go to like, well, you're going to incarcerate women who get abortions? No, you make it illegal, and you punish Planned Parenthood. You punish the doctors,'” Masters said in February on Twitter Space.
Former state Senator Heather Carter said Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters "is too extreme for Arizona."
Elias Weiss
'I Would Have Died'
For Carter and so many other women, it all comes down to Masters’ talking points on abortion.“I think it's always kind of a ‘gotcha’ to go to like, well, you're going to incarcerate women who get abortions? No, you make it illegal, and you punish Planned Parenthood. You punish the doctors,'” Masters said in February on Twitter Space.
At a February gathering of the Queen Creek-San Tan Valley Republican Women Federated club, Masters proclaimed, “The federal government needs to step in and say, 'We recognize life here, and no state can permit abortion.'” He added that overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision “isn’t enough.”
But an all-out ban on abortion doesn't appeal to Republican women, Neely said.
Neely said was suffering from a women’s health ailment several years ago as she served as vice mayor and underwent a life-saving operation by a trusted gynecologist.
“If I wasn’t allowed to take the procedure that I did, I would have died,” she said, asking of Masters, “Why should his granddaughter have fewer rights than his grandmother did?”
Neely isn’t the only Republican woman who thinks criminalizing healthcare providers is out of step with the electorate in Arizona.
“[Masters] wants to put doctors behind bars for providing health care to women when they need it most,” Hoberg said. “We have a voice, and our lives should reflect that. Women in Arizona refuse to go back.”
Masters Has 'Dangerous Beliefs'
Polls seem to side with the Republican women who spoke out on Tuesday. Some 90 percent of Arizona voters support a women's right to choose, according to a poll from NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona. Women voters in the state also back Kelly over Masters 55 percent to 35 percent, according to a poll from Marist College.The three Republicans referenced the overturning of Roe, the September 23 court decision banning nearly all abortions in Arizona, and other recent developments as reasons why they decided to speak out against Masters.
On September 29, the Phoenix Police Department issued guidelines for how police dispatchers should address reports of illegal abortion. Also last week, a 14-year-old girl in Tucson was denied a life-saving prescription drug, which she had been taking for years, because of the drug’s reputation as an “abortion pill.”
“Criminalizing doctors for providing care to women at the time when they need it the most is not what we need in Arizona,” Carter said.
The woman also criticized Masters for peddling the Big Lie conspiracy theory about the 2020 election, calling the gender pay gap “a myth,” and planning to dismantle Social Security. His racist cosplay probably doesn't help, either.
“Some things are worth crossing party lines for,” Hoberg said. "Rejecting a candidate with downright dangerous beliefs is definitely one of them.”
A spokesperson for Masters' campaign did not respond to questions from Phoenix New Times.
