Phoenix, AZ – This week, Governor Katie Hobbs followed through on her promise to put Arizonans first and protect reproductive freedoms.

On Monday, Governor Hobbs ordered the termination of one Fondomonte lease and the nonrenewal of several others. Later in the week, she filed an amicus brief opposing the extremist near-total abortion ban threatening reproductive freedoms in Arizona. In the brief, she lifted up the stories of Arizonans who have relied on access to abortion care.

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Arizona Republic: Arizona moves to end Saudi farm's controversial groundwater deals to grow, export alfalfa

• Hobbs began criticizing the sweetheart deals to Fondomonte on the campaign trail last year during her run for governor. Her administration has this year revoked well permits for the company and paused renewals and applications to lease state-owned lands in groundwater transportation basins.
• Republican La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin has been raising concerns for eight years about such leases and their toll on the state's water supply. ‘I'm just so glad we have leadership in this current administration that listened to La Paz County's voice,’ she told The Republic. “For the first time, I feel like there's real hope in dealing with the water issues here.”

Fox 10: Arizona ends water lease with Saudi Arabia-owned farm, other companies

• An investigation by the governor's office found that the foreign-owned farm had violated some of its lease terms. Hobbs called it unacceptable that the farm "continued to pump unchecked amounts of groundwater out of our state while in clear default on their lease."
• Holly Irwin, La Paz County Supervisor, says this was long overdue. "La Paz County and other rural areas in the state of Arizona finally are being heard on these water issues," said Irwin. "They're real. You know we have people…their wells have gone dry due to this massive pumping."

12 News: Arizona to end deal allowing Saudi farms to suck Arizona's groundwater dry

• The overseas company sucking water out of the Arizona ground will no longer be able to do so, according to an announcement from Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday citing a default on the company's lease.

Arizona Capitol Times: Hobbs urges court not to eliminate women’s right to have abortions

• Citing a series of stories of women whose abortions have changed their lives, Gov. Katie Hobbs is urging the Arizona Supreme Court not to take that right away from them.
• In a legal brief filed Thursday, Hobbs told the justices of women who have terminated their pregnancies, decisions she said that improved their lives or prevented medical complications.

KJZZ: Hobbs urges abortion access as Arizona Supreme Court set to consider ban from 1860s

• Hobbs wants the conservative-majority court to know she thinks enforcing the near-total ban would put Arizonans at risk. In the amicus brief, Hobbs’ attorneys list examples of several Arizona women who recently ended pregnancies. The attorneys argue the women's safety and wellbeing would have been jeopardized had they not been able to access abortion.

Arizona Republic: 'Protect reproductive freedom': Hobbs backs Planned Parenthood, opposes 1864 abortion ban in Arizona

• The Democratic governor's 17-page amicus brief in a case brought by Planned Parenthood against Arizona asks the court to avoid any constitutional questions about abortion rights in their deliberations and instead affirm an appellate court opinion that the pre-statehood ban can exist alongside modern laws.
• Hobbs relates stories of women identified only by their first names who had abortions, telling of their relationships with abusive and drug-addicted partners or how they felt their potential careers were threatened by unplanned pregnancies. In two other stories, women received abortions outside of Arizona because of medical worries about their fetuses, including one who drove to Anaheim, California, for the procedure during a time in 2022 when abortion clinics in Arizona chose to close temporarily given the potential risk of prison time.

This was originally posted on October 6, 2023.