PHOENIX –
An informational pamphlet for Arizona voters deciding this fall whether to guarantee a constitutional right to abortion can refer to an embryo or fetus as an “unborn human being,” the state’s highest court ruled this week.
Arizona Supreme Court justices have sided with Republican lawmakers who drafted the ballot measure sent to all state voters in favor of an abortion rights measure.
The decision comes as abortion foes have long worked to give embryos and fetuses the same legal and constitutional protections as the women who carry them. The issue was recently highlighted when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are legally protected children, forcing lawmakers to scramble to enact protections for in vitro fertilization.
Democrats have made abortion rights a central message after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and it is a key part of their reelection efforts this year. They hope the ballot measure in Arizona, one of several battleground states that will determine which party controls the president and the U.S. Senate, will spur sympathetic voters to the polls.
The decision drew swift criticism from supporters of the ballot measure that the phrase “unborn human being” is neither impartial nor objective. They expressed concern that Arizonans are exposed to biased, political discourse.
“We are deeply disappointed by this ruling, but we are committed to doing everything we can to educate voters about the truth of Arizona’s Abortion Access Act and why a YES vote is important to restoring and protecting access to abortion care,” Access to Abortion said in a statement.
The ballot measure authorizes abortion when the embryo or fetus survives outside the womb, typically for about 24 weeks, with exceptions where later abortions are permitted to save a woman’s life or protect her physical or mental health. It restricts the state from enacting or enforcing any law that prohibits access to the procedures.
Arizona House Speaker Ben Thoma, a Republican who co-chaired the legislative panel that drafted the controversial text, said his goal was to help voters understand the current law.
“The Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling is correct,” Thoma said.
Arizona abortion access sued the Republican-majority legislature for including what the group called political language. The Supreme Court agreed, finding the GOP-friendly language “laden with partisan sentiment and meaning.” That ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court, whose seven justices were appointed by Republican governors.
The summary judgment, signed by Chief Justice John Lopez, gave no further details about the judge’s reasoning and said a full opinion would be issued at a later date. Judge Clint Bolick, whose wife is a Republican member of the Legislature, recused himself from the case.
Language describing an embryo or fetus as an “unborn human being” appears in a pamphlet informing voters about candidates and ballot measures to inform their choices. The U.S. Secretary of State’s office, which is what is printed on the ballot, said “a person is not born” there.
The US secretary of state said on Monday that he had verified 577,971 signatures, far more than the number needed to put the question to voters.
As anti-abortion groups and Republican allies reel from a series of defeats at the polls, many have seized on the method. a set of strategies that the right to abortion from the ballot box, even through monthly legal battles on the language of the ballot initiative.
For example, in Missouri, Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey campaigned on abortion rights months before Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican, attempted to describe the proposal to voters as allowing “unregulated, dangerous abortions up to live birth.” A state appeals court ruled last year that Ashcroft’s speech was political partisanship and threw it out.
In Florida, language was at the center of the state Attorney General’s efforts to keep a proposed abortion rights amendment off the ballot. Many of these strategies build on them seen in ohio last yearwhere voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights.
The other tactic Efforts to curb abortion include efforts to suppress petition signatures, legislative pushes for competing measures that may confuse voters, and efforts to raise thresholds for ballot initiatives or prohibit residents from placing abortion initiatives on state ballots.
Govindarao writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Christine Fernando and Kimberly Kruesi contributed.
