The proposed Arkansas Abortion Amendment will not be on the Nov. 5 ballot as of July 10, according to Arkansas Right to Life.
Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston has thrown out the proposed abortion amendment because the petitions failed to identify paid canvassers by name, as required by state law.
On July 5, Arkansans for Limited Government, the group behind the petition for the abortion amendment, stated in an affidavit submitted to the Secretary of State’s office that it had secured the required signatures to add the measure to the Nov. 5 ballot.
“Today we are happy to send you the good news that the petition to place the terrible Arkansas Abortion Amendment on our voting ballots has been rejected by our Secretary of State,” diocesan respect life director Catherine Phillips wrote in an email to pro-life supporters July 10. “Of course, there will probably be legal challenges to this ruling, but today many prayers have been answered.”
Arkansans for Limited Government announced that it collected more than 100,000 signatures to get on the ballot. If the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office certified that at least 90,704 signatures were valid, the amendment would be on the ballot.
In March, the Diocese of Little Rock announced its Decline to Sign campaign to ask Catholics not to sign the petition. Informational cards and posters in English and Spanish were placed in all parishes.
In a letter to parishioners in February, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor said the amendment would gut “the state’s regulatory laws like requiring parental consent before a minor has an abortion, informed consent and ultrasound requirements or abortion facility inspection. Arkansas would be unable to protect unborn children who can already feel pain from dismemberment abortion.”
If approved by voters in November, unrestricted abortion would be allowed in the state “within 18 weeks of fertilization.”
Phillips said in an email July 6, “Sadly, many of our neighbors want legal abortion. We must continue to educate everyone regarding the grave immorality of abortion and the sanctity of every human life, from the moment of fertilization until natural death.”
In a letter to Lauran Cowles, executive director of Arkansans for Limited Government, Thurston said, “I have determined that you failed to comply with Ark. Code Ann. § 7-9-III(2). That provision requires the sponsor to submit (1) a statement identifying the paid canvassers by name, and (2) a signed statement indicating that the sponsor has provided a copy of the most recent edition of the Secretary of State’s initiatives and referenda handbook and explained the requirements under Arkansas law for obtaining signatures on the petition to each paid canvasser before the paid canvasser solicited signatures.”
Thurston continued, “You submitted an affidavit attesting that the total number of signatures submitted was 101,325. As a courtesy to you, I instructed my office to determine the initial count of signatures gathered by paid canvassers in your putative submission. That number was 14,143. After removing those signatures, and assuming your attestation as valid, 87,382 volunteer signatures remain – 3,322 signatures less than the required 90,704.”
Rose Mimms, executive director of Arkansas Right to Life, said, “We appreciate the diligence of the Secretary of State in the certification process. Though this measure has failed, we expect this is not the end of efforts to once again make abortion legal in our state.”
“With the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, Arkansas Right to Life knew that this fight would come to the doorstep of each of the 50 states, and Arkansas would be no exception. We knew we would be a target as we are the No. 1 pro-life state in the nation,” Mimms said.
