Abortion-rights group flips support to Gallego in Arizona race against Sinema

An abortion-rights group is switching its support to Rep. Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) Senate bid, after having previously backed Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema, who left the Democratic Party last year.

Reproductive Freedom for All announced the endorsement Wednesday, arguing Gallego’s election to the Senate is vital to ensuring the passage of abortion and voting rights legislation.

“Electing him [Gallego] to the U.S. Senate could mean the difference between passing critical abortion and voting rights legislation or seeing it again blocked by extremist Republicans,” Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju wrote in a statement Wednesday.

NBC News was the first to report the group’s endorsement.

The group, formerly called NARAL Pro-Choice America, cited Gallego’s co-sponsorship of the Women’s Health Protection and the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance acts, bills both aimed at advancing abortion access and repealing the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for abortion in most cases.

The organization had also endorsed Gallego’s House reelection bids in 2018, 2020 and 2022 while giving him a “100 percent rating” with regards to its mission.

“At a time when GOP extremists are pushing abortion bans every chance they get, I promise to be an unwavering defender of reproductive rights in the U.S. Senate,” Gallego, who in January announced his bid to unseat Sinema, said in a statement shared by the group.

Noting it changed its endorsement criteria in January of 2022 to reflect its “commitment to voting rights,” Reproductive Freedom for All said it does not endorse or support a senator who would not work to pass voting rights legislation.

Later that January, Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) were the only two Democrats in a 48-52 vote who voted against lowering the 60-vote Senate filibuster being pushed by Democrats to pass legislation that combined the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which strengthens the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the Freedom to Vote Act, which overhauls federal elections. 

Earlier this year, Gallego slammed the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, calling it a “tool of obstruction.”

Reproductive Freedom for All’s flipped endorsement follows a series of blowback from other abortion-rights groups against Sinema after her vote against the filibuster.

EMILY’s List, a progressive organization, announced shortly before her vote it would not endorse the Arizona senator unless she supported a weakened filibuster. Similarly, Planned Parenthood, railed against Sinema’s vote, arguing it showed “a disregard” for the rights and freedoms of her constituents.

A spokesperson for Sinema’s office told The Hill the lawmaker is “proud to have a consistent and clear record of always fighting for women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.”

​”She’ll continue working with anyone to ensure Arizona women have access to health care services, including by protecting the ability for Senators to stop damaging laws from passing that would harm women’s access to care,” the spokesperson said.

This story was updated at 2:11 p.m.