Arizona Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit seeking to block abortion ballot measure

The Arizona Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block an abortion ballot measure that claimed the 200-word summary of the initiative had misled those who signed the petition to get the measure on the ballot.

Arizona Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, had sued to remove the ballot measure, which would enshrine abortion through viability with exceptions, alleging it had misled voters with its summary. The high court in the Grand Canyon State issued an order upholding a lower court’s ruling that rejected claims from the anti-abortion group, ordering that the group pushing the ballot measure is “not required to explain the Initiative’s impact on existing abortion laws or regulations.”

“The principal provisions of the Initiative are (1) the establishment of a fundamental right to abortion under the Arizona Constitution; (2) the scope of that fundamental right, before and after fetal viability; and (3) the preclusion of the State from penalizing a person for assisting another to exercise that right,” the ruling said.

“The Description explains each of these provisions and the tests that would apply to restrictions upon that right. Nothing in the Description ‘either communicates objectively false or misleading information or obscures the principal provisions’ basic thrust,’” the ruling continued.

The ballot measure would prevent the state from making laws that block abortion before viability. It would allow the state to ban abortion after viability, as long as it allows for exceptions to protect the life or physical or mental health of a mother, as determined by a “treating healthcare professional.” Activists have expressed concerns that the measure could pave the way for little to no restrictions on abortion if passed due to the vagueness of some terms in the amendment.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes certified earlier this month that the ballot measure had qualified for the November election.

The ballot measure in Arizona will be one of several across eight states that will put abortion before voters. Montana was the latest state to approve an abortion ballot measure for November.