Arizona voters will decide on abortion amendment this November

Voters in Arizona will be given the opportunity to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution this election.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes certified 577,971 signatures Monday, which far exceeds the required 383,923 to get a question on the ballot. Earlier this year, Arizona for Abortion Access turned in more than 820,000 signatures, which was the largest total of signatures for a ballot referendum in state history and accounts for one-fifth of registered voters in the state.

“Today, we got word that Arizona’s 15 counties finished their review of a random sample of our signatures and the Secretary of State confirmed that we gathered far more than enough valid signatures, 50 percent above the required minimum. It is the most signatures ever validated by a citizen’s initiative in state history,” Arizona for Abortion Access, the group behind the measure, said in a statement.

“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,” campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said.

The proposed amendment would enshrine the right to an abortion “that the state of Arizona may not interfere with before the point of fetal viability.” The point of fetal viability is believed to be around 23-24 weeks of pregnancy.

At the moment, Arizona has a 15-week ban on abortion with no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Abortion access was put in a state of limbo earlier this year after the state Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 near-total ban on abortion was enforceable. Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) signed legislation that prevented that ban from taking place.

Democrats in the state are banking on an abortion rights amendment to give them a boost this fall. In 2020, President Joe Biden narrowly won the state by slightly more than 10,000 votes and marked the first time the state voted a Democrat into the White House since 1996.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has made reproductive rights a central point of her campaign, and a recent HighGround Public Affairs survey shows her about 3 percentage points ahead of former President Donald Trump, with Harris receiving 44.4% of the support and Trump receiving 41.6%. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is also polling 11 points ahead of Republican Kari Lake, both of whom are fighting for an open Senate seat in Arizona.

Arizona is one of many states with abortion on the ballot this year. After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, many swing and Republican-leaning states began enacting voter-backed measures to protect the procedure. Since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, voters in Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio voted to protect abortion rights in their states, and voters in Kentucky blocked an amendment to their state’s constitution that would have denied any constitutional protections for an abortion.