Voters are on track to pass the measure instilling a right to abortion into the state’s constitution in initial election night results. 

Initial election returns show 63.55% supporting a constitutional right to abortion, with 36.45% opposed, marking another chapter in the state’s hard-fought legal and legislative battles over abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade.

The Arizona Abortion Access Act, or Proposition 139, creates a constitutional right to an abortion and prohibits the state from denying or limiting access to abortion before fetal viability, defined as the point when there is significant likelihood of a fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without extraordinary medical measures, or after fetal viability if it is deemed necessary to protect the life, or physical or mental health of the pregnant person. 

The campaign to enshrine abortion into the state Constitution came after a lengthy legal fight over what law controlled Arizona abortion, a 15-week limit passed by the Legislature in 2022, or an 1864 all-out ban on abortion. 

In April, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the 1864 law, though the law was later repealed by the state Legislature, making it so the 15-week law takes precedence. 

Organizers collected and submitted more than 823,685 signatures, far surpassing the 383,923 necessary to make the ballot. The Secretary of State cleared the measure for the ballot in August, with an estimated 577,971 signatures. 

Before securing ballot access, the measure fended off a legal challenge from anti-abortion group Arizona Right to Life, which claimed the measure’s 200-word description was “misleading” to the voters who signed off. 

Arizona for Abortion Access lodged their own lawsuit, too, against the Legislative Council for using “unborn human being” instead of “fetus” in the measure’s summary, but ultimately lost given “unborn human beings” place in existing law. 

Over the course of the election cycle, Arizona for Abortion Access raised a total of $35 million, while the opposition, It Goes Too Far, brought in about $1.4 million in income. 

Opposition to the abortion access initiative makes the case for the current statutory scheme and claims passing the measure would render abortion unsafe, undermine current safeguards and legalize “late term abortion.” 

Polling has shown strong public support for the measure, though. 

Noble Predictive Insights deemed Prop 139 “positioned to pass” in a poll conducted from Oct. 28 to Oct. 30. Per the poll, 57% of 775 likely Arizona voters said they would be voting yes on the measure, with 30% of Republicans in support, 86% of Democrats and 59% of Independents. 

Initial results showed voters overwhelmingly passing the measure, with 63.55% in support.