Pro-choice advocates set to turn in around 800,000 signatures for Arizona abortion ballot measure
PHOENIX — Abortion rights advocates will be presenting petition signatures on Wednesday in hopes of getting the abortion rights issue on the ballot in Arizona’s November general election.
Organizers collected about 800,000 signatures and need 383,923 to be considered valid. If that happens, Arizona voters will be asked whether they want to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
Activists in two other states — Nebraska and Arkansas — also plan to submit signatures for abortion ballot proposals this week. If successful, those states and Arizona will join five others where the issue will go before voters this year: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
Arizona is a swing state in this year’s election, and the abortion issue is a major part of Democratic campaigns. Opponents of the amendment say it goes too far and could lead to unlimited and unregulated abortions in Arizona.
Officials with Arizona for Abortion Access, a partnership of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and Planned Parenthood of Arizona, will deliver hundreds of boxes of signed petitions to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office Wednesday morning.
Arizona for Abortion Access spokeswoman Dawn Penich said this is the highest number of signatures ever submitted by a citizen initiative in the state’s history.
“That was our goal from the beginning,” Penich said. “We started collecting signatures in September and October of 2023 and saw how passionate people are about this issue.”
Election officials said Aug. 22 is the deadline for county clerks to verify petition signatures and provide certified results to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
If approved by voters on November 5, proposed voting measure would allow abortions in Arizona until a fetus can survive outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the parent’s life or protect her physical or mental health. It would restrict the state from passing or enforcing laws that would prohibit access to the procedure.
Arizona currently has a ban on abortions after 15 weeks. It was signed into law in 2022 and includes exceptions for medical emergencies and has restrictions on medication abortion. It also requires an ultrasound before an abortion is performed, as well as parental consent for minors.
Two months ago, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 abortion ban that allowed abortions only to save the patient’s life and made no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. However, the legislature voted to repeal the Civil War-era ban, and Gov. Katie Hobbs quickly drawnThe 19th century law has been blocked in Arizona since 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion nationwide.
Supporters of the Arizona referendum say an amendment to the state constitution is needed to ensure that abortion rights cannot be simply wiped out by a Supreme Court ruling or a vote in the Legislature.
In Nebraska, organizers of a petition to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution are confident they have collected enough signatures to put the measure before voters in November.
Allie Berry, campaign director for Protect Our Rights, and organizers of a competing petition to enshrine Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution, declined to say how many signatures they had collected by Wednesday’s deadline.
Both initiatives, as well as a third initiative that would ban abortion at all stages by treating embryos as people, need about 123,000 valid signatures (or 10% of the state’s registered voters) to get on the November ballot.
Nebraska’s total abortion ban began only eight weeks ago and is unlikely to gather the necessary signatures. The 12-week ban proposal — which was launched in March thanks to a $500,000 donation from Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts — made a furious last-minute effort to gather signatures but has telegraphed that it may not reach the threshold.
Supporters of an Arkansas proposal to roll back the state’s abortion ban have until Friday to file petitions to qualify for the November ballot.
The group behind the measure, Arkansans for Limited Government, said Tuesday on Facebook and Instagram that 8,200 more signatures were needed. The group must submit at least 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify.
The proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit states from outlawing abortions within the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. The bill includes exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality, and to protect the life of the mother. It would also exempt abortions performed to protect the mother from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.
Arkansas banned nearly all abortions under a law that took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Arkansas’ ban currently exempts only abortions to protect the mother’s life in a medical emergency.
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Associated Press reporters Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.