Arizona Right to Life (AZRTL) appealed a trial court judge’s rejection of its lawsuit challenging the Right to Abortion Initiative, Prop. 139, which will appear on the ballot this fall.
AZRTL filed an opening brief with the Arizona Supreme Court on Monday, asking the court “to find the Ballot Measure legally insufficient for placement on the Arizona Ballot because the petition’s summary misrepresented and concealed the principal provisions of the Ballot Measure.” Prop. 139 will legalize abortion up until ninth months of pregnancy, including partial-birth abortion.
Jill Norgaard, a spokesperson for AZRTL who served previously in the Arizona Legislature, issued a statement about the language. “If abortion is a new fundamental right, then this will ultimately lead to tax-payer funded abortion for every Arizona citizen,” she said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg of the consequences stemming from the vague and sweeping language without clear definitions – read the language to understand how the public is being misled.”
The brief cited Molera v. Hobbs, where the Arizona Supreme Court held that “to be legally sufficient, a ballot initiative must not engage in a ‘bait and switch’ in which the summary attracts signers but misrepresents or omits key provisions. … The court should disqualify an initiative from the ballot whenever the 100-word description either communicates objectively false or misleading information or obscures the principal provisions’ basic thrust.”
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