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Right to Abortion Initiative | ||
| Elections in Arizona |
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Arizona Proposition 139 is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the amendment would establish a right to abortion in the Constitution of Arizona up until fetal viability. [1] A simple majority is needed for this proposition to pass.
In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. [2] Arizona's first ban on abortion was passed in 1864. [3] It read:
“[E]very person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years: Provided, that no physician shall be affected by the last clause of this section, who in the discharge of his professional duties, deems it necessary to produce the miscarriage of any woman in order to save her life.” [3]
This total abortion ban was invalidated in 1973 by Roe v. Wade, which recognized a constitutional right to abortion up to fetal viability. A trigger law, drafted to go into effect if Roe were overturned, was passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2022 banning abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy. Later that same year, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that Roe had been wrongly decided. This in turn led to confusion over which of the two Arizona abortion laws should go into effect: then-Governor Doug Ducey backed the 15-week ban, while then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich held that the older total ban should be operative.
In November of 2022, Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes, both supporters of abortion rights, were elected as Governor and Attorney General of Arizona, respectively; their election was seen as part of the so-called Dobbs effect backlash against the ruling. The next month, a state appeals court ruling found that the 2022 law should take precedence, allowing abortions up to 15 weeks to be performed in Arizona. [4] In July 2023, Hobbs issued an executive order stripping local prosecutors of their ability to file prosecutions over the 15-week ban or (if it were revived in court) the 1864 ban, and assigning that power to Mayes, who in turn stated that she had no intention of ever filing such prosecutions. [5] [6]
On April 9, 2024, the Republican-controlled Arizona Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes that the 1864 law could be enforced. [7] However, on May 1, in the face of further backlash, the Arizona Legislature repealed the 1864 law, leaving the 15-week ban in place. [8] Legal maneuvering ensured that the legislature's repeal of the 1864 law would go into effect before the Supreme Court's removal of the injunction against it. [9] Proposition 139, if passed, would invalidate the 15-week ban, restoring the legal situation before the repeal of Roe.
The official ballot title is as follows:
PROPOSITION 139
PROPOSED BY INITIATIVE PETITION RELATING TO THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO AN ABORTION.Official Title
AMENDING ARTICLE II, CONSTITUTION OF ARIZONA, BY ADDING SECTION 8.1; RELATING TO THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO AN ABORTION.
Descriptive Title
CREATES A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO ABORTION. LIMITS THE STATE’S ABILITY TO INTERFERE WITH THAT RIGHT BEFORE FETAL VIABILITY. AFTER FETAL VIABILITY, ABORTIONS ARE ALLOWED WHEN NECESSARY TO PROTECT THE LIFE OR HEALTH OF THE PREGNANT INDIVIDUAL. PROHIBITS LAWS PENALIZING A PERSON FOR ASSISTING AN INDIVIDUAL OBTAINING AN ABORTION.
If approved, the ballot measure would add the following text to Article 2, Section 8.1 to the Arizona Constitution: [10] 8.1. Fundamental right to abortion; definitions
A. Every individual has a fundamental right to abortion, and the state shall not enact, adopt or enforce any law, regulation, policy or practice that does any of the following:
1. Denies, restricts or interferes with that right before fetal viability unless justified by a compelling state interest that is achieved by the least restrictive means.
2. Denies, restricts or interferes with an abortion after fetal viability that, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional, is necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.
3. Penalizes any individual or entity for aiding or assisting a pregnant individual in exercising the individual’s right to abortion as provided in this section.
B. For the purposes of this section:
1. “Compelling state interest” means a law, regulation, policy or practice that meets both of the following:
(a) Is enacted or adopted for the limited purpose of improving or maintaining the health of an individual seeking abortion care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine.
(b) Does not infringe on that individual’s autonomous decision making.
2. “Fetal viability” means the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.
3. “State” means this state, any agency of this state or any political subdivision of this state.
| Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size [lower-alpha 1] | Margin of error | For | Against | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noble Predictive 28 | October 28–30, 2024 | 775 (LV) | ± 3.5% | 57% | 33% | 9% [lower-alpha 2] |
| CBS News/YouGov | October 11–16, 2024 | 1,434 (RV) | ± 3.3% | 52% | 33% | 15% |
| Fox News | September 20–24, 2024 | 1,021 (RV) | ± 3.0% | 72% | 26% | 2% |
| New York Times/Siena College | September 17–21, 2024 | 713 (RV) | ± 4.4% | 58% | 35% | 7% |
| Fox News | August 23–26, 2024 | 1,014 (RV) | ± 3.0% | 73% | 23% | 4% |
| KFF | May 23–June 5, 2024 | 3,192 (Female RV) | ± 5% | 67% | 32% | 0% |
| CBS News/YouGov | May 10–16, 2024 | 1510 (LV) | ± 3.3% | 65% | 21% | 14% |
| Noble Predictive Insights | May 7–14, 2024 | 1,003 (RV) | ± 3.09% | 41% | 41% | 18% |
In the United States, abortion is a divisive issue in politics and culture wars, though a majority of Americans support access to abortion. Abortion laws vary widely from state to state.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.
Abortion in Arizona is legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. On November 5, 2024, Arizona Proposition 139 will appear on the state ballot to decide a woman's constitutional right to abortion up until fetal viability.
Abortion in Colorado is legal at all stages of pregnancy. It is one of seven states without any term restrictions as to when a pregnancy can be terminated.
Abortion in Michigan is legal throughout pregnancy. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed with 57 percent of the vote, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking an abortion, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.
Abortion in Nevada is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy, under the Nevada Revised Statutes chapter 442, section 250; and after 24 weeks if the pregnancy could be fatal for the pregnant individual. 62% of adults said in a 2014 poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal while 34% said it should by illegal in all or most cases. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 76% of Nevadans said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Legislation by 2007 required informed consent. Attempts were successfully made to pass abortion legislation in May 2019, being pushed through a largely Democratic controlled state legislature. The number of abortion clinics in Nevada has declined over the years, with 25 in 1982, seventeen in 1992 and thirteen in 2014. There were 8,132 legal abortions in 2014, and 7,116 in 2015. Due to the high level of support for abortion rights in the state, continued access to abortion is supported by all parties, including the Republicans.
Abortion in Ohio is legal up to the point of fetal viability as a result of abortion rights being placed into the Ohio State Constitution by November 2023 Ohio Issue 1.
Abortion in Florida is generally illegal after six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period, This law came into effect in May 2024, being approved by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis following its passage in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, with only Republican state legislators supporting and only Democratic state legislators opposing. Additionally, pregnant women are generally required to make two visits to a medical facility 24 hours apart to be able to obtain an abortion, in a law approved by Republican Governor Rick Scott in 2015.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), returning to the federal and state legislatures the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal statutory law.
Proposition 1, titled Constitutional Right to Reproductive Freedom and initially known as Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 (SCA 10), was a California ballot proposition and state constitutional amendment that was voted on in the 2022 general election on November 8. Passing with more than two-thirds of the vote, the proposition amended the Constitution of California to explicitly grant the right to an abortion and contraceptives, making California among the first states in the nation to codify the right. The decision to propose the codification of abortion rights in the state constitution was precipitated in May 2022 by Politico's publishing of a leaked draft opinion showing the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The decision reversed judicial precedent that previously held that the United States Constitution protected the right to an abortion.
2022 Michigan Proposal 3, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, also known as Reproductive Freedom for All, was a citizen-initiated proposed constitutional amendment in the state of Michigan, which was voted on as part of the 2022 Michigan elections. The amendment, which passed, codified reproductive rights, including access to abortion, in the Constitution of Michigan.
The following is a list of ballot measures, whether initiated by legislators or citizens, which have been certified to appear on various states' ballots during the 2024 United States elections as of 6 September 2024.
The 2023 Ohio reproductive rights initiative, officially titled "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety" and listed on the ballot as Issue 1, was a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment adopted on November 7, 2023, by a majority (56.8%) of voters. It codified reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and abortion up to the point of fetal viability, restoring Roe v. Wade-era access to abortion in Ohio.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, et al. v. Kris Mayes was an Arizona Supreme Court case in which the court upheld an 1864 law criminalizing abortions except to save the life of the mother. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes did not enforce the law when it was in effect. The law was repealed on May 2, 2024, and the repeal took effect on September 14, 2024.
South Dakota Amendment G is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the amendment would establish a right to abortion in the Constitution of South Dakota up until approximately the beginning of the third trimester of pregnancy.
2024 Colorado Amendment 79 is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the amendment would establish a right to abortion in the Constitution of Colorado and repeal Amendment 3, a 1984 constitutional ban on public funding for abortions. A 55% supermajority vote is required for the amendment to be approved.
2024 Missouri Constitutional Amendment 3, also known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the initiative would amend the Constitution of Missouri to legalize abortion in Missouri until fetal viability and fully shield all abortion providers within the state from all liability, as per subsection 4 of the amendment.
Nebraska Initiative 439, officially titled "Nebraska Right to Abortion Initiative", is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the November 5, 2024 ballot in Nebraska. If passed, it would amend the Nebraska Constitution to establish a right to abortion until fetal viability.
Nevada Question 6 is a proposed constitutional amendment for the state of Nevada in the United States, that would protect the right to an abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered about 23 or 24 weeks, or when necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient. The Question will appear on the November 5th, 2024, ballot in Nevada.