Arizona abortion-rights supporters collect for a information convention previous to delivering greater than 800,000 petition signatures to the state Capitol to get abortion rights on the November normal election poll, July 3, 2024, in Phoenix.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
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Ross D. Franklin/AP
Arizona voters will get to resolve in November whether or not so as to add the proper to an abortion to the state structure.
The Arizona secretary of state’s workplace stated Monday that it had licensed 577,971 signatures — far above the required quantity that the coalition supporting the poll measure needed to submit with the intention to put the query earlier than voters.
The coalition, Arizona for Abortion Entry, stated it’s the most signatures validated for a residents initiative in state historical past.
“This can be a big win for Arizona voters who will now get to vote YES on restoring and defending the proper to entry abortion care, free from political interference, as soon as and for all,” marketing campaign supervisor Cheryl Bruce stated in a press release.
Democrats have made abortion rights a central message for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 — and it’s a key a part of their efforts on this 12 months’s elections.
The difficulty already is about to go earlier than voters this 12 months in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York and South Dakota.
Arizona legislation at the moment bans abortions after 15 weeks. The ban, which was signed into legislation in 2022, consists of exceptions in circumstances of medical emergencies however has restrictions on non-surgical abortion. It additionally requires an ultrasound earlier than an abortion is completed, in addition to parental consent for minors.
The proposed modification would enable abortions till a fetus might survive exterior the womb, usually round 24 weeks, with exceptions to save lots of the mom’s life or to guard her bodily or psychological well being. It might limit the state from adopting or imposing any legislation that will prohibit entry to the process.
Organizers stated they initially submitted 823,685 signatures, greater than double the 383,923 required from registered voters.
Opponents of the measure say it goes too far and will result in limitless and unregulated abortions in Arizona.
Supporters, in the meantime, say a constitutional modification ensures that abortion rights can’t be simply erased by a courtroom resolution or legislative vote.
In April, the Arizona Supreme Court docket upheld an 1864 abortion ban that permitted abortions solely to save lots of the mom’s life and offered no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, however the Republican-controlled Legislature voted for a repeal of the Civil Struggle-era ban, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs rapidly signed it.
The nineteenth century legislation had been blocked for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court docket’s resolution in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group that eradicated constitutional protections for abortion.
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