What to know about legal battles on details of abortion rights ballot measures across US

Abortion access ballot measures are the center of a new wave of legal and procedural questions across the U.S.

Opponents of abortion access have focused on the technicalities at a time when votes have been siding with abortion access advocates. That side has prevailed on all seven ballot questions in the last two years. Abortion-related measures are on November ballots in six states — and that number could grow.

There have been disputes about how official documents should describe the measures and the details of whether they qualify for the ballots at all.

Here’s what to know about the latest wave of legal questions.

How should Arizona’s measure be described?

In Arizona, election officials are still verifying whether there are enough valid signatures to add a measure protecting abortion rights to the ballot.

Even with that question lingering, there’s a dispute over how to describe the measure in a pamphlet to be provided to voters as a resource.

A Republican-led legislative committee wants it to describe a fetus as an “unborn human being.”

Arizona for Abortion Access this week filed a lawsuit trying to block the use of that phrase, arguing it’s politically charged and chosen to rally opposition to the measure.

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