(The Center Square) – Arizona for Abortion Access, an organization working to put abortion access in Arizona’s constitution, officially received a place on the November ballot – Prop. 139.
This proposition states that an individual is entitled to an abortion until fetal viability and in some cases afterwards if it is essential to the individual’s physical and mental wellbeing.
Although having over 577,000 verified signatures from Arizona voters, their place on the ballot is not quite secure. They have two lawsuits that could unseat their initiative. The first of which they filed against the Arizona Legislature after being denied their request to change the language on the informational pamphlets sent out along with the ballot to say “fetus” instead of “unborn human being.”
“Unborn human being is language that is used frequently by anti-abortion folks and we feel that description falls outside of the law’s requirements that it be neutral,” said Chris Love, spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access.
Arizona for Abortion Access won the initial legal battle, but the legislature appealed, leaving up to the Supreme Court to decide.
“The ruling is just plain wrong and clearly partisan if the language of the actual law is not acceptable,” said Speaker Ben Toma. “The judge should run for the legislature if he wants to write the law. We are appealing.”
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, the pamphlet must be submitted by Aug. 29 in order to make it on the November ballot, meaning that the appeals will have to be resolved by then.
Additionally, a pro-life organization, Arizona Right to Life, sued Arizona for Abortion Access with two claims. One being that those circulating the petitions to gain signatures were unqualified to do so, and the other being that the description of the amendment on the petition was “misleading.”
Arizona Right to Life dropped the claims that the circulators were unqualified and Arizona for Abortion Access won the lawsuit regarding the accuracy of the petition summary.
Arizona Right to Life appealed and that will also be determined by the Supreme Court.
“This appeal shows yet again that they are willing to do and say anything — no matter how desperate or dishonest — to deprive Arizonans of their right to direct democracy,” reads a news release from Arizona for Abortion Access. “We’re hopeful the Arizona Supreme Court will grant us a fair and unbiased review and allow Arizona voters to have their say at the ballot box.”
However, if the court does vote that the 200-word summary was misleading, therefore discounting the votes needed to get the initiative on the ballot, Prop. 139 could be removed.
“They’re not being completely honest with Arizona voters,” said Cindy Dahlgren, communications director for It Goes Too Far. “They’re not being upfront with exactly what this amendment would do. They’re leaving out a lot of very important points.”
It Goes Too Far is an oppositional campaign that spreads awareness about the possible dangers of the Arizona for Abortion Access Amendment, according to Dahlgren.
Dahlgren said that the campaign is made up of people with lots of different views, but they have all come together in opposition of this one ballot measure.
“We have this one thing that we agree on – that this amendment goes too far,” Dahlgren said.
The thing Dahlgren pointed out as being problematic is that the wording is too vague in the amendment, leaving room for question. For example, the verbage states that, “no regulation can infringe on an individual’s abortion decision.” Something that Dahlgren believes could be unsafe for women if safety standards are not enforced.
Additionally, the amendment uses the term, “healthcare provider” instead of “doctor,” which she also believes is unsafe, opening up the ability to perform abortions to people who are not certified to do so.
“Proposition 139 is endorsed by more than 40 statewide organizations ranging from physicians’ groups, faith communities, veterans organizations, political advocacy non-profits, nonpartisan advocacy groups, Latino-community organizations and many more,” reads the Arizonan for Abortion Access press release. “We are supported by voters in every political party and across all ages, backgrounds, and demographics who know Arizona patients deserve the freedom to make decisions about pregnancy and abortion with their doctors and families – not with politicians.”
