PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to abortion up to the viability of the fetus, usually after 21 weeks — a big win for proponents of the measure in the presidential battleground state who are trying to expand access beyond the current 15 weeks. week limit.

Arizona was one of nine states where abortion was on the ballot. Democrats want the U.S. Supreme Court to decide Roe v. in 2022. Since overturning the Wade case, she has centered abortion rights in her campaigns. Supporters of abortion rights prevailed on all seven abortion ballot questions in 2022 and 2023, including in conservative-leaning states.

Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition leading the state campaign, collected well over the 383,923 signatures needed to put it on the ballot, which the secretary of state’s office confirmed was sufficient. The coalition has far surpassed the opposition’s It Goes Too Far campaign in fundraising. The opposing campaign argued the measure was too broad and noted that a majority of Arizonans in its own poll supported the 15-week limit. The measure allows post-viability abortion if necessary to preserve the life or physical or mental health of the mother.

Access to abortion in Arizona is a murky issue. In April, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for implementation of a long-defunct 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions. The state Legislature quickly repealed it.

Voters in Arizona are divided on abortion. Arizona State University senior Maddy Pennell said the prospect of a near-total ban on abortion left her “depressed” and strengthened her desire to vote for abortion.

“I feel very strongly about access to abortion,” she said.

Kyle Lee, an independent Arizona voter, does not support the abortion ballot measure.

“The whole of abortion, in my opinion, is murder from beginning to end,” Lee said.

Civil War-era prohibition also shaped the contours of tight legislative races. State Sen. Shawnna Bolick and State Rep. Matt Gress are among a handful of vulnerable Republican incumbents in competitive districts who are crossing party lines to deliver the final blow to repeal votes; This vote will be tested as both parties vie for control of the narrow field. GOP-held state legislature.

Both Phoenix-area lawmakers were scolded by some Republican colleagues for siding with Democrats. Gress introduced a motion on the House floor to initiate repeal of the 1864 law. Announcing her vote to cancel to her Senate colleagues, Bolick gave a 20-minute speech describing her three difficult pregnancies.

Gress will be elected to his seat for the first time in 2022, while Bolick faces voters for the first time. He was appointed by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to fill a vacant seat in 2023. Because he was campaigning, he did not highlight his role in the repeal vote, instead raising traditional conservative issues – one of his signs reads “Bolick Supports Blue.”

Voters rejected a measure that would have eliminated retention elections for state Supreme Court justices and Supreme Court justices.

The measure was put to the vote by Republican lawmakers who hoped to preserve for a routine preservation vote two conservative judges who had advocated allowing the Civil War-era ban to be enforced — Shawnna Bolick’s husband, Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, and Judge Kathryn Hackett King. Because the measure did not pass, both are still vulnerable to voter removal, although the races were not decided as of early Wednesday morning.

Under the current system, voters decide every four to six years whether judges and justices will remain on the bench. The proposed measure would allow judges and justices to remain on the bench without a popular vote, unless triggered by a felony conviction, crimes involving fraud and forgery, personal bankruptcy or mortgage foreclosure.

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