Abortion rights measures will be on November ballots in Missouri and Arizona
By Rashard Rose and Owen Dahlkmap, CNN
(CNN) — Voters in Missouri and Arizona will decide whether to enshrine abortion protections in their state constitutions this November after proposed amendments qualified this week to appear on the states’ ballots.
Missouri voters will consider a statewide constitutional amendment that would “establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives” and remove the state’s ban on abortion, which has no exceptions for rape or incest.
The ballot initiative would still allow abortion to be restricted after fetal viability, according to a Tuesday news release from Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, which gathered signatures to place the initiative on the ballot, called the move “a major step forward for our campaign and for Missourians.”
The Missouri initiative is one of a number of similar measures that will appear on various state ballots, including Florida, Nevada, New York and Arizona, where a proposed state constitutional amendment that would establish a “fundamental right to abortion” qualified for the November ballot on Monday. Similar constitutional amendments have been successful on other ballots around the country in Republican-dominated states, including Kansas and Ohio.
The Arizona Abortion Access Act received 577,971 certified signatures, the Arizona secretary of state’s office said Monday – nearly 200,000 more than required to appear on the November ballot.
The measure would enshrine the right to abortion in the Arizona constitution up to fetal viability, which doctors believe is around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“Today, we got word that Arizona’s 15 counties finished their review of a random sample of our signatures and the Secretary of State confirmed that we gathered far more than enough valid signatures, 50 percent above the required minimum. It is the most signatures ever validated by a citizen’s initiative in state history,” Arizona for Abortion Access, the group behind the measure, celebrated in a statement.
“This is a huge win for Arizona voters who will now get to vote YES on restoring and protecting the right to access abortion care, free from political interference, once and for all,” said campaign manager Cheryl Bruce.
In May, the Arizona Senate voted to repeal the state’s 160-year-old near-total abortion ban, after the state Supreme Court revived the law and thrust reproductive rights into the political spotlight.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the legislation the next day and said, “We should recommit to protecting women’s bodily autonomy, their ability to make their own health care decisions and the ability to control their lives.”
Arizona law imposes a 15-week limit for abortions. That restriction, enacted in 2022, does not include exceptions for rape and incest.
Following the US Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated a constitutional right to abortion nationwide, nearly two dozen US states have banned or limited access to the procedure.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
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