Arizona and Montana have joined the ranks of states that will be able to uphold a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy at the ballot box. Both have overcome legal hurdles on Tuesday and will be on the ballot in the general election on November 5. The abortion debate has been one of the main narrative lines of the US election campaign. Democrats have promised to approve greater protections, while Republicans prefer that each state takes a position on the issue.
In Arizona, one of seven states that will decide the fall election, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by anti-rights groups to prevent the question from reaching the ballot. Arizona Right to Life had appealed a lower court decision that upheld the 200-word question that voters will have to decide on in November. So-called Proposition 139 allows for the termination of pregnancy up to the point of fetal viability, traditionally between 23 and 24 weeks, but also includes exceptions such as risks to the mother’s life or mental health.
Arizona currently has one of the most restrictive laws, allowing abortions only before 15 weeks. Exceptions are only for medical emergencies. Repealing the law Roe v. Wade In 2022, the state was left with draconian legislation written in the late 19th century that did not include exceptions for cases of incest or rape. But local lawmakers temporarily replaced it in April with the one currently in force.
Kamala Harris has put this issue at the centre of her candidacy. Even before becoming the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party, the candidate visited Phoenix, the main city of the State, just two years after the fall of the emblematic ruling that legalised abortion. At a rally, the then vice president claimed that Donald Trump and the conservative supermajority he created in the Supreme Court were responsible for this “chaos”.
The Arizona for Abortion Access coalition, led by Planned Parenthood and made up of several organizations, gathered more than half a million signatures in a year to put the right to abortion in the Constitution. A week ago, the Secretary of State validated 577,000 signatures, the largest number for a citizen proposal in Arizona history.
“This is a major victory for Arizona voters and for democracy,” Arizona for Abortion Access said in a statement Tuesday night. The organization can now focus on getting the region’s residents to approve the proposal, which makes abortion “a fundamental right” and prohibits the prosecution of health care professionals who perform these procedures.
Eight more states will vote on the future of abortion in their local constitutions: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Nevada, North Dakota and Montana. Montana joined the list on Tuesday after Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen said the proposal meets all the requirements to go to the ballot on November 5.
The initiative seeks to elevate a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling that determined that patients seeking abortions are protected by the federal Constitution’s right to privacy. Republican lawmakers have tried to attack that decision with a reform to the law approved in 2023. However, it is still awaiting a decision by local courts on its legality. The state’s voters will have to decide first.
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