Arizona abortion battle rages as lawsuits fly in from both sides

Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona's abortion fight gets more vociferous every day with lawsuits flying in from both pro-life and pro-choice groups. In the latest turn of events, Arizona Right to Life is suing to stop the November ballot measure that would ostensibly enshrine abortion access in the state constitution. Arizona for Abortion Access, a pro-abortion rights group, turned in 823,685 signatures to get the abortion measure on the ballot this November. They needed just 383,923 signatures.

An earlier lawsuit filed by Arizona Right to Life challenged the wording of the Arizona for Abortion Access petition and alleged that signature collectors turned in insufficient forms and misrepresented what they wanted on the ballot.

Now a new lawsuit by the same organization is no longer challenging the signature collectors, but rather the wording used to get people to sign. The group behind the amendment is pushing back against these claims.

“It’s another frivolous misleading claim that they are making. It was a claim that was also a part of the initial lawsuit. We feel that we will be victorious in court,” Chris Love, a spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access, told AZ Family.

"I am 100% confident that we have done all of the things that we could possibly do to make sure our language ends up on the ballot in November.”

Arizona Right to Life released a statement too: “Research completed by our volunteers has set the groundwork to prove that the language of the ballot initiative is misleading and confusing. We are optimistic that we will prevail and that this faulty petition will not be on the November ballot.”

Arizona currently bans abortion after 15 weeks, but if this new amendment is passed in November, abortion rights would be enshrined in the Arizona constitution up until around 24 weeks, with exceptions to provide third trimester abortion cases to save the mother’s life.