Abortion rights measure passes with broad support

Arizona made abortion a constitutionally protected right, in a move that sends a strong rebuke to the state’s GOP legislative majority, most of which backed a near-total ban earlier this year. 

Support for Proposition 139, the Arizona Abortion Access Act, overwhelmingly outweighs opposition. With about half of expected ballots counted, 63% of Arizonans voted in favor of the initiative compared to 37% who voted to defeat it. The Associated Press officially called the contest shortly after 1 a.m.

Backers of the campaign to protect abortion rights celebrated the news, calling Arizona an example for anti-abortion politicians to consider. 

“Next time the nation wonders how much government interference in reproductive healthcare is acceptable, or what type of arbitrary abortion ban is popular, they can look at Arizona and know the answer is ‘none,’” said Chris Love, the spokeswoman for YES on 139. 

Arizona was one of 10 states that had abortion on the ballot this election. As of Tuesday, seven of those initiatives were on track to pass by wide margins. And Florida’s won approval from 57% of voters, but ultimately won’t pass because it didn’t meet a 60% threshold required for constitutional amendments to be ratified.

Victoria Lopez, with the Arizona branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the passage of Prop. 139 was a resounding referendum on the anti-abortion stance of the state’s GOP majority.

“For far too long, Arizonans’ have been subject to the whims of extremist politicians seeking to ban abortion completely,” she said. “Today, Arizonans emphatically affirmed that decisions about abortion belong to us.”

The Grand Canyon State is currently under a 15-week gestational ban that includes no exceptions for rape or incest victims. Only abortions performed to prevent a patient’s death or the impairment of a “major bodily function,” are legal beyond the 2022 law’s deadline. 

Prop. 139 would enshrine abortion as a fundamental right in the Arizona Constitution, striking down the 2022 law and shielding the procedure from any future restrictions pushed by lawmakers. It would also restore the standard previously upheld in Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing Arizona women’s ability to obtain an abortion until the point of fetal viability. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists estimates fetal viability to be around 23 weeks. 

Along with adopting Roe’s gestational standard, the initiative includes an exception that allows abortions to be performed beyond fetal viability if a provider deems one is necessary to preserve a patient’s life, physical or mental health.

A coalition of local reproductive rights groups and progressive organizations drafted the initiative last year to challenge the 15-week law, after a bid to repeal it failed to earn enough signatures in 2022 to qualify for the ballot, due in part to a lack of time. Prop. 139, however, drew widespread support from voters, collecting more than double the number of signatures needed to land on the 2024 ballot. 

In April, new attention to the initiative came when the Arizona Supreme Court revived a Civil War-era near-total abortion ban that mandated prison time for doctors. All but 6 of Arizona’s 45 GOP lawmakers resisted a move to repeal the law before it could go into effect.  

Along with removing the state’s gestational ban on abortion, the initiative is expected to invalidate other laws that were passed as barriers to abortion access, including a 24 hour waiting period and a mandatory ultrasound. The initiative expressly prohibits the passage or enforcement of any law or policy that denies, restricts or interferes with a woman’s right to obtain an abortion, unless its purpose is to improve or maintain her health. Lawyers for the campaign have said those laws and others would likely need to be contested in court.

Abortion opponents attributed the win to “deceit” and “lies.” It Goes Too Far, a campaign made up of pro-life organizations that sought to paint Prop. 139 as too extreme for Arizonans, criticized backers of the initiative for misleading voters about the actual legality of abortion in the state. Leisa Brug, the campaign manager of It Goes Too Far, said that characterizing the 15-week gestational law as a ban convinced Arizonans to support Prop. 139. 

“Proponents repeatedly told Arizona voters that there was a ban on abortion and women would have to be on death’s door before doctors could treat them for miscarriages or late term complications,” she said in an emailed statement. “The fact is none of that is true; many voters were duped.”

Pro-life advocates, including It Goes Too Far, have framed the 15-week law as simply a limit on abortions, and emphasized the fact that the vast majority of procedures occur within that time frame. In 2022, the year for which the latest data is available and before the gestational ban went into effect, 96% of all Arizona abortions were performed before 15 weeks. 

And while critics of abortion have said the state’s 15-week law doesn’t apply for women suffering miscarriages, the reality in hospital rooms and doctor’s offices is more complicated. Multiple studies in states with restrictive abortion laws have found that doctors hesitate whenever criminalization is on the table, even if life-saving interventions are needed and when the care is likely to be legal. In Arizona, doctors have voiced concerns about providing routine procedures that may later need to be justified in court, including when women are facing health emergencies. 

Cathi Herrod similarly criticized the campaign behind Prop. 139 for making false statements, and said its passage would lead to the removal of critical safety regulations for Arizona women. Herrod is the president of the Center for Arizona Policy, an organization that has been behind many of the state’s anti-abortion laws, including the 15-week law, and also backed the reinstatement of the 1864 near-total ban. 

“Arizona will come to regret passing Prop 139 — when girls and women lose their doctors and safeguards, when parents get shut out, when a staggering number of unborn lives end before they even begin, and when voters realize they have been lied to by proponents who would say anything to pass their extreme abortion amendment,” she said in a written statement.

A key argument from opponents of the abortion initiative has been that it will lead to the elimination of laws that keep women safe. They argue that the requirement that only a qualified medical provider, for example, perform an abortion will be ignored or that precautions to protect women from sepsis or hemorrhaging will be bypassed to uphold the right to an abortion above all else. 

But the language of Prop. 139 includes a caveat that expressly allows for the enforcement of laws that are intended to “improve or maintain” the health of the person seeking an abortion, even if those laws interfere with the patient’s goal of ending their pregnancy.

***UPDATE: This story has been updated with additional comments.