PHOENIX — Pro-choice advocates are expected to turn in petition signatures Wednesday in hopes of getting the issue of abortion rights on the November general election in Arizona.
Organizers have collected around 800,000 signatures and need 383,923 of them to be considered valid. If that happens, Arizona voters will be asked whether they should enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
Activists in two other states — Nebraska and Arkansas — are also planning to submit signatures this week for abortion ballot measures. If successful, these states and Arizona will join five others where the issue is expected to go before voters this year: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
Arizona is a swing state in this year’s elections, and the abortion issue is a key part of Democratic campaigns. Opponents of the amendment measure say it goes too far and could lead to unlimited, unregulated abortions in Arizona.
Arizona officials for Abortion Access, a coalition of groups that includes 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 on Wednesday morning. .
Arizona for Abortion Access spokeswoman Dawn Penich said it was the largest number of signatures ever submitted by a citizens’ initiative in the state’s history.
“That was our goal from the beginning,” Penich said. “We started collecting signatures in September and October 2023 and saw how passionate people are about this issue.”
Election officials said Aug. 22 is the deadline for county registrars to verify petition signatures and provide certified results to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
If approved by voters on November 5, the proposed ballot measure would allow abortions in Arizona until the fetus can survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the parents’ lives or to protect their physical or mental health. It would restrict the State from adopting or enforcing any law that prohibits access to the procedure.
Arizona currently bans abortion for 15 weeks. It was sanctioned in 2022 and includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies and has restrictions on medical abortion. It also requires an ultrasound before the abortion, as well as parental consent for minors.
Two months ago, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the 1864 abortion ban that allowed abortions only to save the patient’s life and offered no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, but the Legislature voted to repeal the Civil War-era ban , and Governor Katie Hobbs signed quickly. The 19th century law had been blocked in Arizona since 1973 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. Wade, who guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion throughout the country.
Supporters of the Arizona ballot measure say a change to the state constitution is needed to ensure that the right to abortion cannot be easily eliminated by a higher court ruling or legislative vote.
In Nebraska, organizers of a petition to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution expressed confidence they had gathered enough signatures to present the measure to voters in November.
Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights, and organizers of a competing petition to codify Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution, did not say how many signatures they gathered before Wednesday’s deadline.
Both efforts, as well as a third that would ban abortion at all stages, considering embryos as people, must obtain about 123,000 valid signatures – or 10% of the state’s registered voters – to reach the November ballot.
The push for a complete abortion ban in Nebraska began just eight weeks ago and is unlikely to gather the necessary signatures. The proposed 12-week ban — which began in March thanks to a $500,000 donation from Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska — made a furious 11-hour effort to collect signatures but telegraphed that it might not meet the threshold.
Supporters of an Arkansas proposal that would scale back the state’s abortion ban face a Friday deadline to submit petitions to try to qualify for the November ballot.
The group behind the measure, Arkansans for Limited Government, said on Facebook and Instagram Tuesday that it still needed 8,200 signatures. The group must submit at least 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify.
The proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit the state from prohibiting abortion in the first 18 weeks of pregnancy. The proposal includes exemptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies 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 almost all abortions under a law that took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade. Arkansas’ ban currently only exempts abortion to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency.
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Associated Press reporter Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.
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