Abortion rights groups in Arizona on Tuesday took a first step in their attempt to put the issue in front of voters in 2024, filing to add a ballot measure that would amend the state constitution and add abortion protections.
The new political action committee, Arizona for Abortion Access, is vying to upend state law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The coalition seeks an amendment — "Arizona Abortion Access Act" — that would allow abortions up to fetal viability, which is usually 22 to 24 weeks.
The PAC includes the ACLU of Arizona, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, and NARAL Arizona.
The group hopes to follow in the wake of other states that have enshrined abortion access into state constitutions after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year.
The group has until July 3, 2024, to get 383,923 signatures, or roughly 5 percent of the state's population, the requirement to add the measure to the 2024 ballot. However, they'll have a fight on their hands.
"Our initial viewing of the measure reveals an extreme power grab by an industry that sees no limits to abortion," Cathi Herrod, president of the social conservative Center for Arizona Policy, said in a statement.
Still, a Public Religion Research Institute poll released earlier this year found that 62% of Arizonans believe abortion should be legal in most cases.
"We know that there is support for that because candidates have organized their own political campaigns in the past on this and won, so we know that people will vote for the issue itself," Jodi Liggett, senior adviser for NARAL Arizona, told The Washington Post, which first reported on the effort.
California and Vermont have passed similar measures, enshrining abortion rights into their respective state constitutions. If the ballot measure is accepted, Arizona would join Maryland, New York, and Ohio in voting on the amendments themselves. However, Ohio voters on Tuesday are at the polls voting whether to make it harder to pass such attempts.
The PAC said it will begin its signature collection next month.
"This proposal put forth in Arizona by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and other far left special interest groups aims to create an Arizona unrecognizable to those of us who live here," Maria Birnbaum, Arizona field director for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a release.
"The ACLU and the abortion lobby's extreme and barbaric vision for Arizona aligns with their own radical agenda to eliminate parental rights and eliminate any protection for the unborn, not what Arizonans believe."
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