PHOENIX (AP) — Pro-choice advocates are set to deliver petition signatures Wednesday in hopes of getting the abortion rights issue on Arizona’s November general election ballot. Organizers collected about 800,000 signatures and need 383,923 of them to be deemed valid. If that happens, Arizona voters will be asked whether to enshrine in the state constitution the right to an abortion.
Activists in two other states — Nebraska and Arkansas — also are planning to submit signatures this week for ballot measures about abortion. If successful, those states and Arizona will join five others where the issue is set to go before voters this year: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota. Arizona is a swing state in this year's election, and the abortion issue is a key part of Democratic campaigns.
Opponents of the amendment measure say it goes too far and could lead to unlimited and unregulated abortions in Arizona. Officials with Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and Planned Parenthood of Arizona, will turn in hundreds of boxes of signed petitions to the Arizona Secretary of State's office Wednesday morning. Arizona for Abortion Access spokesperson Dawn Penich said it was the most signatures ever submitted by a citizens initiative in state history.
“That was our goal from the get-go,” Penich said. “We started collecting signatures in September and October 2023 and saw how passionate peopl.