Facing mounting pressure to overturn a near-total abortion ban revived last week by the Arizona Supreme Court, Republican state lawmakers are considering efforts to undermine a planned ballot measure this fall that would enshrine abortion rights in Arizona Constitution, according to a presentation obtained by The New York Times.
The 1864 law set to take effect in the coming weeks bans nearly all abortions and imposes prison terms of two to five years for providing abortion care. The proposed abortion rights ballot measure, known as the Arizona Abortion Access Act, would enshrine the right to an abortion before viability, or about 24 weeks. Supporters of the measure say they have already collected enough signatures to put the question on the ballot before the July 3 filing deadline.
Republicans in the Legislature are under tremendous pressure to overturn, or at least amend, the 1864 ban. Former President Donald J. Trump, the national GOP standard-bearer, intervened directly on Friday, calling on Republican lawmakers in a frantic online post to “act immediately” to change the law. A top Trump ally in Arizona who is running for Senate, Carrie Lake, also called for overturning the 1864 law, which she had once praised.
Abortion rights have been a winning message for Democrats since the Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Mr. Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. And though it is an objectively unpopular aspect of his legacy in White House, Mr. Trump has repeatedly boasted that he was personally responsible for overturning Roe.
Republicans in Arizona, however, have already resisted efforts to repeal the 160-year-old law and are bracing for the possibility of another battle over the ban expected in the legislature, which is set to convene on Wednesday. Plans circulating among Republican lawmakers suggest the caucus is considering other measures that would divert attention from the 1864 law.
The presentation to Republican state lawmakers, written by Linley Wilson, general counsel for the Republican majority in the Arizona State Legislature, suggested several ways the Republican-controlled legislature could undermine the ballot measure, known as the AAA, placing competing constitutional amendments on the ballot that would restrict abortion rights even if the proposed ballot passed.
The plan, the document said, “Changes the narrative — Republicans have a plan!” adding that the plan “puts Democrats on the defensive to argue against partial-birth abortions, discriminatory abortions and other basic protections.”
One proposal would ask the Legislature to send two other ballot initiatives to voters that would “conflict” and “take votes away” from the AAA ballot measure. Constitutional amendment ballot measures can be proposed by petition, as with the AAA ballot measure, or through the state legislature, and the document suggests that voters could read Republican ballot measures first on the ballot if filed before by AAA vote Count.
One of the Republican ballot initiatives outlined in the presentation would enact a ban on abortion after the fifth week of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and medical necessity. The other option would suggest a ban after the 14th week of pregnancy. The measure’s language would be deliberately written to mislead voters about exactly when an abortion would become illegal, according to the presentation.
The second option, for example, would be known as the “Fifteen-Week Reproductive Care and Abortion Act.” But “in reality,” according to the presentation, “it’s a 14-week law masquerading as a 15-week law because it would only allow abortion up to the beginning of the 15th week.” Similarly, the wording of the five-week abortion ban would make abortion illegal “after the sixth week of pregnancy begins.”
An alternative to these two options would be to submit a ballot measure that would only take effect if the AAA ballot measure also passed. That plan, known as the “conditional enactment,” would insert language into the state Constitution stating that the right to an abortion under the AAA ballot measure “is not absolute and shall not be construed to prevent the Legislature from regulating abortion in future. It will also include language used by anti-abortion campaigners referring to “preserving prenatal life” and “alleviating fetal pain”.
Ben Thomas, the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, confirmed the authenticity of the document and said in a statement that it “presents ideas that have been drafted for internal discussion and consideration within the caucus. I have stated publicly that we are looking at options to address this issue and this is just part of it.”
State Sen. Anna Hernandez said in a statement that she and her fellow Democrats would continue to push to repeal the 1864 law and that the Republican proposals were “purposefully crafted to confuse voters” with policies “based on arbitrary numbers weeks that have no real basis in science or health care.”
Dawn Penich, spokeswoman for Arizona for Abortion Access, the liberal coalition organizing the AAA ballot, said in a statement that the Republican presentation “shows once again why Arizonans cannot leave our most basic and personal rights to hands of politicians. “
Kate Zernike contributed reporting from New York.
