Abortion on the Ballot in Arizona: What You Need to Know

PHOENIX, AZ – This November, voters in Arizona will most likely have on their ballots a ballot initiative regarding abortion. This initiative, while cloaked in moderate language that many agree with, fetal viability, in reality, is a Trojan horse to allow limitless abortion à la Colorado, in which it is legal for a woman to obtain an abortion even at the latest stage of pregnancy.

Voters may not be aware of the true intentions of the initiative as its actual motives are hidden in plain sight under a few lines of text. It starts with strong Libertarian undertones by mentioning “bodily autonomy” and “overbearing and unnecessary government interference.” Following is a short, yet skewed, history of recent events: Dobbs overturning Roe, the law that Arizona briefly reverted to that was recodified most recently in 1977 before being repealed, which the initiative inaccurately stated as “19th Century”.

Then, there’s the wording of the Amendment itself. Rather than leave it at fetal viability as it establishes at the beginning of the text, it waters it down by adding the proposed §8.1A.2. which states that the state of Arizona may not abridge the right to 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.” All but removing the need for the previous clause as it stated that abortions before fetal viability would be allowed.

In the initiative, treating health care professional is not defined. However, with the beginning of the proposal stating the Amendment should be liberally interpreted as opposed to a narrow interpretation, surely any judicial ruling on the matter would allow for anyone with any type of degree in any field related to health would be able to sign off on a post–viable abortion procedure as well as carry one out themselves. This has been the very thing pro–life associations such as the “It Goes Too Far” campaign and Susan B. Anthony Pro–Life America have been saying and by a literal interpretation of what the initiative states, such is the case. The question becomes: how aware are the voters of Arizona of the highly likely potential pitfalls of such an Amendment? Do they know they’re signing the death warrant of thousands of viable fetuses, or is the organization pushing this ballot measure relying on unsuspecting voters to ram through yet another extreme late-term abortion initiative in the same way as it has been done across the Nation in the wake of Dobbs?