Court Rules Arizona Voter Pamphlets Can Call an Embryo an ‘Unborn Human Being’

Arizona’s Supreme Court decided Aug. 14 that an embryo or fetus can be called an “unborn human being” in information pamphlets for voters ahead of the state vote on abortion. This November, Arizona voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion as a right in their state constitution. The proposed amendment would allow abortions until fetal viability, or around 24 weeks. The Arizona Secretary of State’s office announced on Aug. 12 that it had validated an estimated 577,971 signatures in support of a ballot measure, the Arizona For Abortion Access Act, to establish abortion as a constitutional right in the state. In its decision, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Republican legislators’ use of “unborn human being” to refer to a fetus in the voter pamphlet “substantially complies” with the state’s impartiality requirements, reversing a lower court’s decision banning it....