Abortion access seems set for ballot after gaining over 800K signatures from Arizona voters

A coalition of abortion rights groups on Wednesday turned in signatures from 823,685 voters, more than double what is needed to put the Arizona Abortion Access Act on the November ballot.

Supporters said the total was the most ever gathered in state history.

The massive number creates a large buffer to withstand review by election officials and any legal challenges to the signatures’ validity that may be forthcoming. The number of signatures gathered represents roughly one of every five registered voters in the state.

"What we’re turning in is a show of strength of the campaign, but also strength of the issue of protecting abortion,” said Chris Love, a spokeswoman for the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign. “And I'm confident that we will obviously appear on the ballot, but more importantly, I'm confident that we’ll win in November.”

The ballot measure, if approved by voters on Nov. 5, would create a right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution. The campaign needed 383,923 signatures by Wednesday’s deadline to submit petitions to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.

What they turned in offers a measure of voter enthusiasm and reflects the vast amount of groundwork put in so far. Proponents began collecting signatures in September — opening a 10-month window to court voters to sign — and had spent over $7 million on that effort as of the end of March, the state's most recent campaign finance reporting deadline.

Volunteers spanned political spectrum

The campaign said there were over 7,000 volunteers who helped.

Amanda McLoone, 55, Chandler, was one. She retired from Intel last year and got her notary to help sign off on petition sheets. McLoone said she is an independent voter and put in about two hours a week for five months. That culminated last week when she notarized petitions at Brick Road Coffee in Tempe.

“There was just a stream of people coming in, every 5 minutes someone was coming in," she said. “These are people who collected from friends and family, so maybe they’re bringing six signatures or two signatures or 10. But the amazing thing was the amount of people who were collecting a small amount of signatures to do their part.”

McLoone said knowing that she was able to help brought tears to her eyes.

“In my life I've been afforded what I believe is the right to have women's reproductive healthcare, and to have that taken away is devastating,” she said, her voice clouded with emotion as she recalled the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

“I know it’s a small amount, but I feel so proud, so extraordinarily proud to have been a part of something so important," she said. “It couldn't be more important for women in this country.”

Abortion rights are a top issue for Barbara Blazek, 59, of Ahwatukee. A registered Republican, she volunteered to collect signatures and turned in one petition page – fewer than 15 signatures.

She met resistance in her conservative community, she said, but was undeterred. She said she has a physical reaction, including chills, when she thinks about abortion precedent being overturned. She believes abortion is a decision to be made by a woman and her doctor.

To let anyone else have a say "scares the hell out of me,” she said.

The Arizona Abortion Access Act would create a fundamental right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution and prevent government entities from enacting or enforcing any law, policy or practice that denies or interferes with that right before a fetus is viable.

Viability, generally around 23 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, is when a doctor determines there is a significant likelihood the fetus can survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical measures.

After viability, the ballot measure says the state cannot restrict abortions that are “necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

Support for abortion campaign outpaces recent ballot measures

The signatures will now be reviewed by election officials and could be subject to a legal challenge by opposing groups, though no challenges were certain early Wednesday.

One group opposing the ballot measure, It Goes Too Far, planned a 10 a.m. Wednesday news conference. The group ran a campaign urging voters not to sign the abortion petition.

Proponents of the constitutional amendment say it leaves a healthcare decision between a pregnant woman and her doctor, cutting out government interference. They argue a voter-approved law would settle the chaos of abortion law changes in the last two years, while ensuring political whims of future elected officials cannot affect access in Arizona.

Opponents have argued the ballot measure would allow medical professionals who are not doctors to provide abortions and create exceptions that permit abortions late in pregnancy. They have tried to cast Arizona’s current prevailing law, allowing abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy with an exception later only in cases of a medical emergency, as sufficient.

The secretary of state does not keep data that would easily confirm the number of signatures is the most in state history. The number far outpaces that of popular petition campaigns in recent years.

The 2020 effort to legalize adult-use marijuana filed 420,000 — a nod to cannabis culture's popularization of the number "420." The ballot measure ultimately passed with 60% of the vote.

Two separate ballot measures in 2022, one that proposed election reform and another that capped interest on medical debt , each turned in about 470,000 signatures. The medical debt measure passed with 72% of voters in favor, but the election reform campaign ultimately did not qualify for the ballot.

Though supporters had gathered twice as many signatures as needed in 2022, courts invalidated half of them, leaving the campaign 1,458 signatures short.

What’s next for the abortion rights campaign?

The groups backing the ballot measure include ACLU of Arizona, Arizona List, Planned Parenthood of Arizona and others. Their work will now shift to making a broad appeal to voters to turn out in November and vote yes.

“We’re full steam ahead on transitioning into a yes campaign,” said Cheryl Bruce, the campaign manager for Arizona for Abortion Access.

The campaign has reserved $15 million in television and radio advertising in Phoenix and Tucson. The ad blitz will begin in September and include Spanish-language ads.

"The Latine communities are our largest growing voting communities here in the state,” Love said. “And it would be a grave mistake if we weren't in those communities and sharing our message in ways that, you know, resonate with them. I don't think that we can win without them.”

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The national political landscape

What is allowed in Arizona has been in flux for two years since the nation’s top court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 50-year-old precedent that shielded abortions through viability.

The Arizona Supreme Court this year reinstated an abortion ban dating to 1864, leaving the state with one of the most restrictive laws in the country. But that law will not be enforced after a handful of GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in the Legislature to repeal it. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the repeal in May.

Democrats have sought to make abortion a mobilizing issue for their voters this year. In swing states including Arizona, they hope it will be a decisive one that may push their candidates across the finish line in tight races.

Five other states will have abortion ballot measures this fall, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and media reports. Battleground state voters in Nevada and Florida will consider abortion access, and other states may have measures that have not yet qualified for the ballot.

Over a dozen states allow direct citizen initiatives that give voters a chance to put measures directly on the ballot, as Arizona does through the petition and signature gathering process, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Abortion access seems set for ballot after gaining over 800K signatures from Arizona voters