Dawn Penich, Communications Director for Arizona for Abortion Access, speaks at the group’s ballot signature turn-in day press conference. Photo: Fairness Project “Abortion is on the ballot” has become Democrats’ favorite refrain since the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade two years ago, and in several states this November, it literally will be. At the end of last week, three states—Arizona, Nebraska, and Arkansas—each submitted well over the number of signatures required to get on the ballot in hopes of enshrining abortion rights into their state Constitutions. (Their respective secretaries of state still need to validate these signatures and approve the proposed measures.) But collecting the hundreds of thousands of signatures necessary was far more complicated than it should have been. In every state where abortion rights activists are working to get a ballot measure approved, anti-abortion activists are wielding harassment, intimidation campaigns, and outright lies to try and stop their efforts. Deception has become the standard from the anti-abortion movement, Kelly Hall, executive director of Fairness Project, told Jezebel, because “they know or fear they’re going to lose a conversation about the substance of the issue.” In Arizona, the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign shared with Jezebel that they submitted over 820,000 signatures on Wednesday—well over the state's 383,923 requirement. That means one in five of all registered voters in Arizona signed in support of abortion rights. This comes in the aftermath of the state Supreme Court's first ruling that a Civil War-era, criminal abortion ban in the state could take effect...though it's since been blessedly prevented from taking effect. Still, abortion is banned at 15 weeks. Meanwhile, in Nebraska, an abortion rights group on Wednesday submitted 207,000 signatures, which is almost double the 123,000 required to qualify for the ballot. (Abortion is currently banned at 12 weeks in the state.) And in Arkansas, which has a total abortion ban (and threatens abortion providers with up to 10 years in prison), abortion rights organizers submitted more than 100,000 signatures, well over the 90,700 signatures required. The groundswell of support for abortion rights—even in deep red states and swing states—is unsurprising to Hall, whose organization has been fundraising and organizing for abortion rights ballot measures across the country including in Arizona. (They also supported the Ohio abortion measure that overwhelmingly won in November.) “A lot of our political coverage is presented through this partisan lens with voters thinking of themselves as ‘red’ or ‘blue,’ but people support a lot of different issues across the spectrum regardless of political identity,” Hall said. “We’re seeing overwhelming support for abortion rights, record-shattering numbers of people saying ‘we want to vote on this issue ourselves and this shouldn’t be political football.’” Across the board, abortion rights are popular. Bans, Hall stressed, tend to be a result of gerrymandered legislatures and voter suppression, and threats to abortion rights are often part of broader threats to democracy. “They’re fighting reproductive rights by trying to keep voters from participating in direct democracy. If they had confidence the electorate is with them, they’re able to persuade voters, why not have an open and fair vote?” Hall said. “Inherent in the tactics they’re [anti-abortion politicians and activists] choosing is an admission that they know abortion bans are unpopular, so let’s change the rules of the game, or lie, or make this all too complicated.” Voter suppression tactics, through disinformation and intimidation campaigns or, as we saw in Ohio, quite literally eliminating voters from voter rolls en masse, have become the weapon of choice for anti-abortion activists and politicians to fight these proposed ballot measures. We’ve seen this in each of the…
