Arizona Court Sides With G.O.P. Over Abortion Language in Voter Pamphlets

Two days after Arizona’s secretary of state certified the signatures needed to put before voters a ballot measure establishing a right to abortion in the state Constitution, the Arizona Supreme Court sided with Republican anti-abortion lawmakers in a dispute over how to describe the measure to voters.

The court said on Wednesday that informational pamphlets the state sends out to registered voters describing ballot measures can use the term “unborn human being” to describe a fetus or embryo. Reversing a lower court decision that the term violated state law requiring “impartial” language in the publicity pamphlets, the high court said in a brief order that the language “substantially complies” with the requirement for impartiality.

The words “unborn human being” will not appear on actual ballots; the language on the ballots is determined by the secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, who is a Democrat.

Abortion rights groups — who celebrated when Mr. Fontes announced late Monday that they had gathered a record number of signatures to put the question on the November ballot — said they were “deeply disappointed” by the court’s ruling.

“This decision is beyond disgraceful,” Athena Salman, the director of Arizona campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All, said in a statement. “Muddying the waters and relying on lies are the only tools left for anti-abortion extremists, whose agenda is demonstrably at odds with voters in our state.”

“Unborn human being” and “unborn child” are the terms long used by anti-abortion groups, who seek to establish that life begins at conception, and to ban abortion from that point.