Last week the Arkansas Supreme Court blocked the Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024 from appearing on the November ballot.
The decision came after the court determined the measure’s sponsors, Arkansans for Limited Government, failed to comply with state law governing the use of paid petition canvassers.
However, the measure might have moved forward in spite of the court ruling had it not been for pro-life efforts against the abortion amendment. Here’s how:
As we have written before, the Arkansas Abortion Amendment would prevent the State of Arkansas from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy — which is more extreme than Roe v. Wade and likely would lead to thousands of elective abortions on healthy women and unborn children every year.
The measure would automatically nullify state laws that conflict with the amendment — jeopardizing basic abortion regulations like parental-consent and informed-consent requirements and paving the way for taxpayer-funded abortion in Arkansas.
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The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it does not require abortions to be performed by a physician or in a licensed medical facility.
The measure also contains various exceptions that would permit abortion up to birth in many cases.
Pro-lifers in Arkansas have worked for months to share this information and oppose the abortion amendment.
Placing an amendment on the ballot in Arkansas requires 90,704 valid petition signatures from registered voters. Arkansans for Limited Government utilized petition canvassers across the state — including some 265 paid-canvassers — to gather signatures in support of the amendment. However, pro-lifers have been active in every county across Arkansas, encouraging voters not to sign petitions for the abortion amendment.
On July 5, Arkansans for Limited Government submitted petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the ballot.
By law, when a ballot initiative’s sponsor submits the petitions, the sponsor also must file a sworn statement confirming that each paid-canvasser was employed in accordance with state law. Arkansans for Limited Government failed to file this affidavit when they submitted the petitions for the abortion amendment.
Because the sponsors failed to comply with state law, Secretary of State John Thurston rejected all of the petitions for the abortion amendment.
That prompted Arkansans for Limited Government to file a lawsuit against Secretary of State Thurston.
The Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision last Thursday agreed that Arkansans for Limited Government failed to comply with state law and that the Secretary of State was right to disqualify the petition signatures gathered by paid-canvassers.
However, the court’s decision indicated the Secretary of State was wrong to reject the signatures collected by volunteers.
Arkansans for Limited Government’s volunteers collected 87,675 signatures — which is short of the 90,704 required to qualify for the ballot. But had the group’s volunteers gathered more signatures, their abortion amendment might have advanced to the next step certification process.
All of this underscores the success of the pro-life efforts against the amendment.
Pro-life Arkansans mobilized to educate voters about the abortion amendment. They spread the truth, and Arkansans chose not to sign the petitions to place the abortion amendment on the ballot. Without those efforts, the the abortion amendment might have garnered enough support to move forward in spite of the state supreme court’s decision last week.
It’s a testimony to the hard work and dedication of the many pro-life groups and individuals in Arkansas who are committed to spreading the truth about abortion.
LifeNews Note: Jerry Cox is the president of the Arkansas Family Council.
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