Most Arizona voters think lawmakers were right to repeal the state’s 1864 law banning nearly all abortions, and most say they’d vote to expand abortion access, according to a new poll from CBS News.
CBS News conducted the poll earlier this month among about 1,500 Arizona adults. About 1,200 of respondents were registered Arizona voters.
The poll asked registered Arizona voters if they thought the near-total abortion ban should have been repealed — as it was in early May — or if lawmakers should have left it in place. 72% said it should have been repealed and 28% said it should have remained on the books.
When asked if they would vote to support a ballot measure to make abortion a constitutional right in Arizona, 65% of likely Arizona voters said they would. 21% said they would not vote for such a measure. 14% said they weren't sure.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, voters in six states have considered constitutional amendments regarding abortion. In each of those states, voters sided with abortion access.
Arizona is one of more than a dozen states likely to have an abortion access measure on the ballot in November. Abortion rights advocates have until July to gather enough signatures to qualify to put the issue before Arizona voters. The proposed Arizona for Abortion Access Act would amend the state constitution to allow abortions to the point of fetal viability, which is around 24 weeks of gestation. Currently, Arizona allows abortions until 15 weeks into a pregnancy.
Most Arizona voters have heard at least something about the potential ballot measure, the CBS News poll found. 25% said they had heard "a lot" about the initiative, and 45% said they had heard "some" information about it. 22% said they had not heard much, while 8% had heard nothing.
About half — 51% — of likely Arizona voters polled called abortion a "major" factor in their thinking about the presidential election. But the poll found the most commonly cited issues on Arizona voters' minds were the economy and inflation — 82% and 78% of voters, respectively, called those issues "major" factors.
