Arizona voters enshrine abortion rights in state constitution

Arizona voters on Tuesday approved an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, NBC News projects.

The ballot measure, Proposition 139, will create a “fundamental right” to receive an abortion up until fetal viability, or about the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions after that if a health care professional decides it’s needed to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

Passage of the measure will effectively undo Arizona’s current law, which states that abortions are legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the woman’s life but no exceptions for rape or incest.

“What we started in the fall of 2022, we finished tonight. A fundamental right to abortion is part of the Arizona Constitution once and for all. Next time the nation wonders how much government interference in reproductive healthcare is acceptable, or what type of arbitrary abortion ban is popular, they can look at Arizona and know the answer is ‘none’," Chris Love, a spokesperson for "Yes on 139," one of the group's behind the proposal, said in a statement.

Tuesday’s vote is the latest chapter in a heated, long-running debate in the battleground state over abortion access that followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

In April, the conservative-leaning Arizona Supreme Court ruled to reinstate a near-total ban on abortion from 1864. Following blowback in the state and across the country, including from Republicans, Arizona lawmakers passed a bill to repeal the ban in May, which Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law.

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The repeal effectively restored the 15-week ban the state’s Republican governor at the time signed into law in 2022.

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Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition of reproductive rights organizations behind the ballot effort, had shattered the record for the number of valid signatures gathered for a ballot initiative in the state.

Constitutional amendments to enshrine abortion rights were on the general election ballots in nine other states Tuesday: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota.