Prominent pro-choice organizations are lining up to push a ballot initiative in Arizona aimed at expanding abortion rights in the state, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Among the groups are the American Civil Liberties Union, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Arizona List, Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Healthcare Rising Arizona.
Their proposal would push back Arizona's current 15-week ban, with limited exceptions, to 22 to 24 weeks, or when a fetus can survive outside the womb.
Exceptions beyond that would also be expanded to cover threats to a woman's physical or mental health.
"We know the work for achieving reproductive freedom is an uphill battle, and this ballot initiative is the next critical step in our renewed drive to protect the health and freedom of our patients and our communities," said Chris Love, senior adviser to Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona.
If the groups collect 384,000 signatures from registered voters by July, the initiative will appear on the 2024 ballot.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, told CNN's "The Source" on Wednesday that she supported the initiative and refused to rule out future expansions of abortion rights beyond 24 weeks.
Other states, including conservative ones, have seen pro-choice ballot measures succeed and pro-life ones fail since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson last year.
Voters in Ohio earlier this week rejected by a wide margin a proposed constitutional change aimed at making it harder for future ballot measures, like abortion-related ones, to pass.
And Kansas voters shot down in August 2022 a proposed constitutional amendment by an 18 percentage-point margin, 59% to 41%, that would have removed a state constitutional right to an abortion.
Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.
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