Arizona Will Vote On Adding Abortion Protections To State Constitution In November

Arizona state officials confirmed on Monday that a proposal seeking to make abortion a “fundamental right” easily cleared the signature threshold for ballot placement, meaning voters will decide whether to add abortion protections to the state constitution in the November general election.

The Arizona Abortion Access Act received nearly 578,000 signatures, according to state officials, which was around 50% more than the 383,923 signatures required, local media reported. The state’s Republican-controlled legislature voted earlier this year to repeal a near-total abortion ban after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that it could go into effect. Under current state law, abortion is outlawed after 15 weeks.

If approved by voters, the Arizona Abortion Access Act would make abortions legal up until 24 weeks, an arbitrary point in time that doctors use to determine when an unborn baby has reached the point of viability. However, some babies as young as 22 weeks have also survived outside the womb thanks to advances in medical technology.

Pro-abortion activists cheered the proposal making it onto the November ballot. Arizona for Abortion Access campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said, “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.” The proposal will appear on the November ballot as Proposition 139.

Pro-life advocates argue that if passed, Prop 139 will push Arizona closer to unregulated abortion and make the state one of the most radical pro-abortion states in the U.S.

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Abortion remains a top issue for Democratic candidates heading into the 2024 election. Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have sought to energize their base on the issue of abortion, promising they will “fight for a woman’s right to choose” and attacking former President Donald Trump for appointing three justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Only around one in eight voters list abortion as the top issue in the 2024 election, according to KFF polling conducted earlier this year, The Washington Post reported.

Trump said last week at his Mar-a-Lago press conference that he doesn’t think abortion will have much of an effect on the upcoming election.

“I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. It’s a very I think it’s actually going to be very small issue,” he said, adding, “I think the abortion issue has been taken down many notches. I don’t think it’s a big factor anymore, really.”

Even if abortion remains a minor issue for most voters, Democrats welcome the addition of Prop 139 to the ballot in Arizona, a vital battleground state. Trump currently leads in the polls in Arizona by 1.5 points, according to RealClearPolitics, but the race has become closer since Harris took over as the Democrats’ nominee.