Arizona certifies abortion rights initiative for November ballot

Arizona voters will decide if the right to an abortion should be part of the state’s constitution in November after organizers successfully gathered enough signatures for the initiative to end up on the ballot.

On Monday, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office confirmed that the Arizona for Abortion Access Act will be a voting measure on the November ballot under “Proposition 139."

The proposed act asks voters if the state should establish a fundamental right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution, prohibit the state from outlawing abortion before fetal viability – around 24 weeks – and allow for abortion after that point if a physician determines it is necessary to protect the physical or mental health of the pregnant person.

It arrives after a chaotic year for the state in which the Arizona Supreme Court voted to uphold a Civil War-era abortion ban thatcriminalized nearly all abortions and would have overridden the state’s current 15-week abortion ban.

The near-total ban was repealed in May.

An estimated 577,971 Arizonians signed the proposed ballot measure, a record number of certified signatures that far exceeds the necessary 383,923 needed.

«Well, if you just look at the number of petition signatures that were submitted you’re talking about almost one out of every five Arizona voters signed that petition to put this on the ballot,» Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told The Independent last week.

«We’ve never seen anything close to that ever for any issue,” Fontes added.

Abortion rights advocates had been lobbying to get the proposition on the swing state’s ballot for months.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Reproductive