PHOENIX — Arizona’s ballot will include a major reproductive rights measure this fall alongside the presidential, Senate and other battleground races, putting a key issue directly before voters in the swing state.
JP Martin, the deputy communications officer for the Arizona secretary of state’s office, told NBC News on Monday evening that the Arizona for Abortion Access Act will go before voters this election cycle, after organizers shattered the record for the number of valid signatures gathered for a ballot initiative in the state.
The secretary of state’s office estimates that 577,971 valid signatures were turned in by Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations that includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona. The signature haul far surpassed the 383,923 signatures required to make it onto the ballot. The Arizona for Abortion Access Act will go before voters under the title “Proposition 139.”
“This is a huge win for Arizona voters who will now get to vote YES on restoring and protecting the right to access abortion care, free from political interference, once and for all,” Cheryl Bruce, campaign manager for Arizona for Abortion Access, said in a statement.
The constitutional amendment would create a “fundamental right” to receive abortion care up until fetal viability, or about the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions after that if a health care professional decides it’s needed to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”
Opponents of the measure have focused on the potentially broad application of the mental health exception, arguing that it would make it far too easy to end viable pregnancies.
Under current Arizona law, abortion is legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the woman’s life and no exceptions after that for rape or incest.
“Thousands of local volunteers and dozens of organizations focused on reproductive rights, healthcare, faith communities, and veterans rights, not to mention millions of Arizonans have been looking forward to this day for more than a year,” Chris Love, a spokesperson for the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign, said in a statement.
The political debate over access to abortion has been particularly charged — and action-packed — in Arizona after the 2022 Dobbs decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade.
In April, the conservative-leaning state Supreme Court ruled that Arizona’s near-total ban on abortion from 1864 was still in effect.
But a handful of Republican state legislators joined with Democrats to pass a bill repealing the ban in May, which Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law.
The repeal effectively restored a 2022 law, signed by the Republican governor at the time, that made abortion legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the woman’s life but no exceptions for rape or incest.
Approving Proposition 139 in November would effectively undo the 15-week ban.
In a video shared by the Arizona secretary of state’s office, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes acknowledged the legal hurdles the ballot proposal is likely to face. “I’m going to be signing off on a certificate that’s going to create, well, for — it’s going to create a bunch of lawsuits,” Fontes quipped moments before signing the paperwork.
“This is going to certify that the initiative has made the ballot,” said Fontes.
