An Arizona state judge has rejected challenges from an anti-abortion group to a constitutional initiative seeking to expand abortion rights in the state and set to appear on the November 2024 ballot.
The proposed amendment seeks to establish “a fundamental right to abortion” in Arizona, limiting the state’s “ability to interfere with that right before fetal viability” — typically understood to be 22-25 weeks of pregnancy, and a standard that existed for nearly 50 years under Roe v. Wade before the federal Supreme Court dismantled that precedent. Regulations on abortion can occur after that time period, but they cannot restrict the right to obtain the procedure if it’s sought “to protect the life or health of the pregnant individual.”
Arizona Right to Life, a far right anti-abortion group, challenged the proposal on several fronts. Initially, the organization had argued that signatures were collected in an improper way, stating without evidence that some signatures were faked, for example. However, the group dropped that challenge and instead focused on other dubious claims, including allegations that the wording of the amendment and an accompanying explanation of it was too confusing for voters.
“The Amendment purports to allow regulation of late-term abortions but then guts that proffer with a huge loophole for ‘good faith’ abortionist judgements about the malleable scope of ‘health,'” Arizona Right to Life said in its brief.
On Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian flatly rejected those claims, stating that the language of the proposed amendment wasn’t confusing to voters.
“The description accurately and fully communicated the initiative’s key provisions,” Julian wrote in her opinion. “This Court will not order its removal from the general statewide election ballot.”
Arizona Right to Life has yet to state whether they will appeal the order, though officials with Arizona for Abortion Access — the group that organized the petition drive — said they fully expected the case to continue into higher state courts.
The lawsuit from the anti-abortion group was “nothing more than false political talking points,” said Arizona for Abortion Access campaign spokesperson Dawn Penich. “If our opposition appeals, we are confident we will prevail just as we are confident we will win at the ballot box this November.”
Polling on the measure shows that it has the support of most Arizonans at this time. A CBS News survey back in May, for instance, found that 65 percent of voters backed enshrining abortion as a state constitutional right, with only 21 percent stating they were opposed to the idea.
The popularity of the proposal is also notable in the fact that Arizona for Abortion Access was able to obtain over 800,000 signatures in support of it appearing on the ballot — more than twice the number that was needed in order to have voters decide on it in November.
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