823,685 reasons why Republicans should be worried about Arizona's abortion initiative
Arizonans working to ensure the right to an abortion on Wednesday put an exclamation point on their march to the November ballot.
823,685 points, actually.
That’s the number of signatures the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign turned in on petitions to overrule the Republican legislators who tried — and, fortunately, failed — to take us back to 1864.
The ones who think that anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion should spend a mandatory two to five years in prison. Never mind if the woman is a girl. Never mind if she’s a victim of rape.
The message on Wednesday to those Republicans seems obvious.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
1 in 5 voters signed to have a say on abortion
Democratic presidential prospects may have turned into a train wreck, but when 7,000 volunteers hit the streets, month after month, to collect signatures ...
When a hundred or more of them converge on the state Capitol in near triple-digit heat to put that exclamation on their 10-month campaign ...
When they've turned a record number of signatures — easily more than double the 383,923 needed to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot ...
Well, it’s not looking good for Republicans.
One in five voters signed petitions to put the Arizona Abortion Access Act on the ballot.
That’s easily more than half of the 1.3 million voters who reelected Sen. Mark Kelly in 2022.
It’s a political mess of the Republicans’ own making.
Arizona Republicans sorely miscalculated
Polls show that most Arizonans support abortion, to a point. Clearly, that point is not in the 19th century, despite the hopes and dreams of the Republicans who have long controlled the Legislature.
They sorely miscalculated when they pushed to keep that 1864 law, rather than repealing it and returning to the state’s 15-week ban, which also makes no exception for rape or incest.
Then they failed, anyway, as five Republicans — four of them in competitive races — voted with Democrats to repeal that 1864 law and restore the 15-week ban they passed in 2022.
Leaked GOP abortion strategy: Is an insult to voters
Under the ballot proposal, abortion would become a constitutional right in Arizona, guaranteed until the point of viability and beyond in some cases.
If I were Kari Lake, the U.S. Senate candidate who once called the 1864 ban a “great law,” I’d be frantic.
If I were U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, the six-time co-sponsor of the “Life Begins at Conception Act” that would have outlawed abortion nationwide, I’d be trying to change the subject.
Ditto for U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who like Schweikert faces a competitive challenge in November.
The fallout will be fast, deep and likely inevitable
Same for the Republican legislators who are clinging to a bare one-vote margin in both the state House and Senate.
And for Supreme Court Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King, two of the four judges who reinstated the 19th century abortion ban — the two who must stand for retention on the November ballot.
The fallout from their ruling — and the Republican Legislature’s support of it — is likely to be vast and deep, and with 823,685 signatures?
I’m not sure there’s much Republicans can do to stop it.
Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRoberts.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona abortion initiative gets huge boost from 823,685 voters