Pro-abortion advocates have launched a campaign to enshrine abortion on demand, up to the moment of birth, in Arizona’s constitution.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a political action committee, filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office to place a constitutional amendment on the 2024 General Election ballot.
The pro-life advocacy group, Center for Arizona Policy Action, issued a statement that read, in part:
“The abortion industry’s effort to safeguard its business brings a new radical ballot measure to AZ, via outside money and special interests. These measures threaten parental rights, leaving parents out of their daughter’s most consequential decisions.
The Arizona Supreme Court has been asked to rule whether a 2022 state law that allows abortion during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy preempts an older Arizona law that essentially bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother.
“This initiative is the most dishonest thing I’ve ever seen in politics and that’s saying a lot. Voters will go to the polls hoodwinked to thinking they are voting on an abortion “compromise,” when in fact they will be voting to enshrine the extremist view that abortion is a-okay right up ’til birth into our state constitution,” said attorney and Arizona State Rep. Alex Kolodin.
In December, a three-judge panel from the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Arizona physicians can perform abortions on fetuses up to 15 weeks old. The ruling found that because the Arizona Legislature had regulated physicians’ performance of abortion procedures over the years, the 15-week ban should be relied upon, instead of the 1864 laws that would have otherwise been controlling.
The ruling sided with Planned Parenthood and Pima County in finding that doctors cannot be prosecuted under the near-total abortion ban that dated to 1864. The current law, the ban on abortions after 15 weeks passed this last year by the Legislature, takes precedence.
Arizona for Abortion Access needs 383,923 valid signatures from registered voters in Arizona voters by July 3, 2024.
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Court Of Appeals Rules 15-Week Abortion Ban Is The Law In Arizona