Abortion rights advocates in Arizona filed the initial paperwork on Tuesday to put a proposed amendment to the state constitution on the ballot in 2024 that would affirm the right to an abortion in Arizona. The group that filed the amendment, Arizona for Abortion Access, is supported by a coalition of groups, including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, NARAL Arizona, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Arizona List, and Healthcare Rising Arizona.
The amendment, which supporters call the Arizona Abortion Access Act, would add language to the state constitution saying that “every individual has a fundamental right to abortion.” It goes on to say that laws, polices and regulations cannot be enforced or enacted if they deny or restrict abortion access before fetal viability; deny or restrict abortion access after fetal viability that a physician feels is medically necessary; or penalize someone for assisting a person seeking abortion care.
Before Arizona voters can decide on whether to add this language to the state constitution, supporters must collect the necessary amount of signatures. Arizona’s state constitution requires proposed constitutional amendments to have valid signatures from 15 percent of eligible voters. For the purposes of elections in 2024, the Arizona Secretary of State Office says that 383,923 signatures are required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Abortion has been a contentious issue in Arizona. The state currently has an abortion ban on the books from 1901, although a federal court ruled last year that it cannot be enforced. Republicans in the state legislature have advanced additional abortion restrictions, while theArizona Governor Katie Hobbs, an Democrat, issued an executive order protecting abortion rights.
This comes after voters in several states voted in favor of abortion rights in 2022, including California, Kentucky and Michigan. Advocates in many states, like Arizona and Ohio, see ballot measures as a way to circumvent conservative state legislatures that passed stringent abortion bans across the country after the Supreme Court removed the federal right to an abortion.
Human rights groups have expressed dismay about abortion restrictions that put patients at risk, urging the UN to take action. Recently, judges have blocked some of these strict restrictions from being enforced.
