Supporters of the Arizona Abortion Access Act who are registered to vote have less than a week to sign the petition to get it on the November ballot.
If approved by voters in November, the act would amend the state constitution to make abortion a fundamental right.
This ballot initiative was driven by Arizona for Abortion Access, a collective that includes organizations like Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. The full amendment text is here.
State law requires organizers to collect at least 383,923 signatures and submit them to the Arizona Secretary of State by July 3 in order to make it onto the November ballot.
Arizona for Abortion Access has already surpassed the minimum goal but they’re still collecting signatures to ensure a robust cushion against any invalid entries and to demonstrate the magnitude of local public support for abortion rights.
Dawn Penich, spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access, said the plan was always to collect a surplus.
“Because we wanted to send such a resounding message, we made a goal of collecting double what’s required,” she said.
Access to abortion is an important issue for Arizonans with 90% wanting abortion to be legal in at least some cases, according to a February 2024 poll by Noble Predictive Insights. Only 10% of respondents said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.
The organization’s signature collection efforts officially end a week before July 3 to facilitate necessary pre-submission housekeeping and validation efforts. The last collection days vary statewide, she said, with Tucson concluding on June 22, Phoenix on June 26, and Flagstaff on June 28.
Organizers had already collected 500,000 signatures by early April — far ahead of the July deadline and before the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling on the 1864 abortion ban.
“We hit that 500,000 even before all the headlines about the Arizona Supreme Court installing the 1864 total ban,” Penich said. “That 1864 total abortion ban ruling really woke up a lot of people who are pro-choice, who support access to abortion, but who didn’t fully understand how urgent it really is to protect this right that any day a court or a set of politicians can take away from us.”
The campaign’s comprehensive outreach extended across the state. “We worked really hard, and we have had volunteer signature collectors coordinated everywhere … We have people in tribal communities. And then, of course, all the major population hubs, like Flagstaff, Tucson, the East Valley — Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert,” Penich added.
Meanwhile, opposition to the amendment has emerged. The group It Goes Too Far is calling on Arizonans to join their “decline to sign” campaign.
“Abortion is legal in Arizona up to 15-weeks and beyond that for medical emergencies,” said campaign manager Leisa Brug in an emailed statement. “There are also commonsense safety precautions in place to protect girls and women who seek abortions. The proposed abortion amendment goes too far.”
Organizers also argue that the amendment would undermine existing safeguards and compromise safety standards in abortion clinics, citing concerns over parental rights and reasonable regulations. “In an effort to expand abortion, the proposed abortion amendment makes it unsafe for girls and women,” according to statements on the organization’s website.
Penich rebutted these claims, urging transparency and encouraging the public to read the concise, one-page amendment.
“One thing that I like to tell people is, you know, when you hear these lies, go back and read our link, the bill itself,” she said. “It is very plainly an attempt to put the decision-making power in the hands of patients and healthcare providers. If you listen to some of the lies that the opposition campaign is putting out there, you won’t be able to find what they’re saying in the language, and that’s because it’s not true.”
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