PHOENIX — Access to abortion will be in the hands of voters come November. ABC15 was the only news station on Monday as Secretary of State Adrian Fontes certified the signatures for the ballot initiative from Arizona for Abortion Access.
Secretary Fontes told ABC15 the group had received close to 200,000 more valid signatures than needed to make the ballot.
Voters, as it stands, will be deciding on a constitutional amendment that would allow abortions up to the point of viability, which is around 24 weeks. But there are some exceptions included in the measure.
"So, it’s not just historic because it's the largest, but the valid signatures is more than any other petition has turned in to begin with," said Secretary of State Fontes during an interview with ABC15.
"We got to this moment because Arizonans are so clear about wanting to have personal freedoms in our lives," said Dawn Penich with Arizona for Abortion Access. "That these are decisions that belong to women, their health care providers, and their families."
Arizona for Abortion Access called Monday's news a "huge win for voters" and said the initiative will be on the ballot as Proposition 139.
ABC15 also reached out to "It Goes Too Far", a group that calls the measure "extreme." They said their focus is on educating voters ahead of November.
"In this amendment, you won't even find the word doctor or physician or woman for that matter," said Cindy Dahlgren with It Goes Too Far. "So those are the sorts of things that voters need to know before they go to the polls and decide how they want to vote on Prop 139."
We're told there is active litigation that is still ongoing regarding the language of the initiative. Arizona for Abortion Access said those legal challenges were won, but ultimately an appeal now will be in the hands of the Arizona State Supreme Court.
Arizona for Abortion Access had previously said Arizona Right to Life was the other party involved in those legal challenges.
Jill Norgaard with Rights to Life, provided the following updated statement:
A previous version of this press release incorrectly quoted Mr. Yost as saying that the Initiative has “unrestricted abortion up to and after fetal viability” when he actually said that the “initiative would establish a fundamental right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution and it would prevent the State from denying, restricting, or interfering with this fundamental right in specific circumstances both before and after fetal viability.”
