Arizona abortion rights campaign is Planned Parenthood's 'No. 1 priority'

Leaders of the campaign to put abortion rights into the Arizona Constitution have amassed an over $9.5 million war chest four months before the election, a significant cash advantage over a leading opponent.

Arizona for Abortion Access, the political action committee behind the ballot measure, has raised nearly $23 million since it began, well beyond any other similar ballot measure group so far this election cycle. After its spending, the committee had just over $9.5 million cash on hand. That's according to campaign finance reports that had to be filed Monday under state law.

"Arizonans want the chance to finally put a stop to political overreach into our personal healthcare decisions, and our most recent finance report shows we’re well on our way to victory in November," campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said in a statement.

The path to November is sure to bring in millions more dollars from various groups on both sides of the debate, each hoping to get their views before Arizona voters. At least five states will have abortion on the ballot in November, and both in Arizona and nationally, Democrats have used the issue to get voters to turn out and potentially push their candidates to victory.

Swing-state Arizona is at the top of the list for Planned Parenthood and its political advocacy affiliates.

"Arizona is our No. 1 priority," Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson said in an interview during a visit to Phoenix last week. "I don't say that to all the states. Arizona is our No. 1 priority."

Find out more: Abortion access seems set for ballot after gaining over 800K signatures from Arizona voters

Abortion campaign's biggest contributions come from health care unions, Bill Gates' daughter

The biggest donors to Arizona for Abortion Access are, according to the campaign finance report:

• The Fairness Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that has backed ballot measures in several states as a way to work around lawmakers, contributed over $5 million. The Fairness Project is funded by California-based Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, a union of health care workers, patients and other members, according to disclosures required by Arizona's Voters Right to Know Act.
• Healthcare Rising, the Arizona affiliate of that health care union, contributed another $5 million.
• Planned Parenthood's political organizations, both in Arizona and nationally, have donated over $2.6 million. Planned Parenthood operates four clinics in the state that provide abortion services.

The largest individual backer so far was Phoebe Gates, the daughter of the billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda French Gates. In an interview this year with Bustle , an online magazine that caters to women, 21-year-old Phoebe Gates cited her mother's work and her own anger over the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade as motivation for her reproductive health care activism.

She donated $750,000 to support the ballot measure in late June, according to the report.

"Freedom to make decisions about one's health and future is fundamental for women — unlocking important educational and financial opportunities so they can reach their full potential," Phoebe Gates said in a statement.

Gates said her support was "a direct response to requests from advocates in the state, who are doing the work to help ensure women do not have their freedoms taken away in the upcoming election."

Abortion campaign brings in over $27 for every $1 opponent raised

Leading opposition group It Goes Too Far has raised over $830,000 and has just over $400,000 cash on hand, according to its report filed this week. Leaders of that group downplayed the money disadvantage.

"It doesn’t cost much to tell the truth," It Goes Too Far campaign manager Leisa Brug said in a statement. The campaign has alleged supporters of the ballot measure are hiding information from voters about how it could impact abortion policy more broadly.

"We are educating voters, not trying to deceive them with vague, undefined language and big activist out-of-state money," Brug said.

It Goes Too Far's largest donors are a man from Tempe and a lawyer from Washington state . That lawyer, who once ran for office as a Democrat and owns a home in Tucson, previously told The Arizona Republic he donated because he believes in "life as an inalienable right."

Arizona for Abortion Access said it had over 14,000 individual donors who gave an average of $41 online, in addition to its major funders.

"The most successful campaigns raise dollars at every level, and that’s exactly what we are working hard to do: raise the funding needed to reach, educate and mobilize voters in every corner of the state," Bruce said.

In Arizona, just making the ballot costs millions. Arizona for Abortion Access spent about $10 million of its total haul to collect voters' signatures, according to the latest campaign finance reports, which cover spending and fundraising through the end of June. That was in addition to the efforts of thousands of volunteers.

The over 823,000 signatures gathered, by the organizers' estimate , are being reviewed by election officials to ensure enough are valid to meet the threshold to be on the ballot. That number is about 384,000 signatures.

The Arizona Abortion Access Act, if it makes the ballot and is approved by a majority of voters in November, would create a right to an abortion in the state constitution. That right would prohibit restrictions on abortion before a fetus is viable, generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy, and would create exceptions when abortions are allowed after that period of pregnancy.

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

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona abortion rights campaign is Planned Parenthood's 'No. 1 priority'