Arizona Voters Approve Abortion Rights Amendment

Arizona voters approved a ballot amendment enshrining a right to abortion in the State Constitution, according to The Associated Press, joining other states that have pushed back against unpopular abortion bans passed in the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.Wade.The state was one of 10 with abortion measures on the ballot this year — more than ever before.Like those in other states, the Arizona measure essentially establishes the protections of Roe in the State Constitution, enshrining a “fundamental right” to abortion before fetal viability, when a fetus has a “significant likelihood” of surviving outside the uterus, generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy.It allows the state to restrict abortion before viability if it has a “compelling reason,” and allows abortion after viability if, in the “good-faith judgment of a treating health care professional,” it is necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman.State law currently allows abortion until 15 weeks of pregnancy.

One in five voters signed the petitions to place the measure on the ballot.The broad coalition of groups behind the measure argued that the ballot amendment would stop politicians from interfering with health care decisions that should be between women and their doctors.A coalition of religious and anti-abortion groups had sued to keep the measure off the ballot, arguing that it opened up the potential for nearly unrestricted abortion and eliminated laws intended to protect women’s health and safety.Republicans who control the State Legislature and the State Supreme Court also opposed the measure.

But the court rejected an effort by anti-abortion groups to strike the measure from the ballot, saying that it believed the abortion rights groups had met the requirements to place it there....