By Laura Daniella Sepulveda and Sam Burdette |Arizona Republic
Arizona businesses have partnered with an abortion rights organization to help collect petition signatures that would put a constitutional amendment making abortion legal in the state on the November ballot.
The effort was coordinated by a coalition of health care professionals and advocates whose goal is to collect 356,467 voter signatures before the July 7 deadline. If the endorsement goal is met, Arizonans will have a chance to vote in November if they want to make abortion a constitutional right in the state or not.
The organization submitted the petition application to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office on May 16, two weeks after the draft leak of the Supreme Court’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
Within hours following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade — eliminating abortion as a protected constitutional right — thousands took to the streets across the state to speak against the ruling. Others held demonstrations to celebrate it throughout the weekend.
Abortion reaction:4 arrested, several detained after protesters push down fencing
Following the decision, abortion rights organizations in Arizona issued an emergency motion on Saturday asking the federal court to block the law from prevailing to protect health care workers who perform abortions from being charged with assault or child abuse felonies.
The majority of abortion clinics in Arizona have already stopped providing services on Friday out of fear of facing criminal charges related to two state laws on the books banning abortion.
The newest out of the two was passed in April 2021 and prohibits abortion at 15 weeks, except in cases to save the mother’s life. The law could take effect 90 days after the state Legislature adjourned, which would be Sept. 24.
Physicians who violate the law could face felony charges and the removal of their professional licenses.
Another ban, which dates back to pre-statehood, criminalizes helping someone access abortion, except to save the mother’s life, and calls for a mandatory prison sentence of two to five years for violators.
It is unclear which of the two state laws could prevail following the Supreme Court ruling.
The proposed constitutional amendment would create a new right for Arizonans to make decisions about abortion, contraception, prenatal care, childbirth, infertility care and related services.
The amendment would take power away from the government to “restrict, penalize, frustrate or otherwise interfere” with any of those rights, including “pre-viability” abortions, or interfere with nonmedical reproductive services.
Abortions would still be limited by the viability of the fetus, as they are now, but with no set time frame as a firm rule. Viability would be defined by a “good faith medical judgment” of a licensed health care professional that a fetus would survive, with or without artificial support, the initiative states.
