Arkansas rejects initiative seeking to ease abortion ban despite over 100,000 supporters

Arkansas officials rejected a ballot initiative that sought to loosen the state’s strict abortion ban, after canvassers delivered more than 101,000 signatures to state offices.

In a letter, the secretary of state, John Thurston, said he would reject the canvassers’ attempt to appear on the November ballot because they failed to submit sworn statements by paid canvassers.

“You did not submit any statements meeting this requirement,” Thurston said in a letter Wednesday. “By contrast, other sponsors of initiative petitions complied with this requirement. Therefore, I must reject your submission.”

Thurston said that even if he had not rejected the ballot measure for lack of sworn statements by paid canvassers, he would have rejected signatures they collected.

Of the 101,525 signatures submitted, 14,143 were collected by paid canvassers. Excluding them left campaigners 3,322 signatures short of what is required to appear on the fall ballot.

Republicans in the state cheered canvassers’ rejection.

“Today is a great day for life in Arkansas,” said Ben Gilmore, Arkansas state senator. “Life is the most basic God-given human right and Arkansas will continue to protect the lives of our unborn children.”

Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG), reproductive rights canvassers in the state, called the disqualification “ridiculous”, said they worked with the secretary’s office at “multiple junctures”, and called the sworn statement requirement an “unfounded legal interpretation”.

“More than 101,000 Arkansans participated in this heroic act of direct democracy and stood up to proclaim their support for access to healthcare,” said AFLG. “They deserve better than a state government that seeks to silence them.”

“We will fight this ridiculous disqualification attempt with everything we have. We will not back down.”

The ballot measure would have asked voters to allow abortion up to 20 weeks gestation and later in cases of rape, incest, when pregnancy causes a life-threatening condition for a woman, or if a fetus is unlikely to survive.

Today, Arkansas bans abortion at conception, affecting 668,000 women of reproductive age. Although the state allows abortions in the case of medical emergencies, the state department of health reported zero abortions in 2023, according to NBC News.

Recent polls show support for abortion rights has risen since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that provided a constitutional protection for abortion rights for nearly 50 years.

Before the supreme court’s decision, abortion restrictions were a point of strength for the Republican party. The issue of restrictions reliably turned out conservative voters, even as the party faced little risk that severe restrictions would go into effect.

After Donald Trump successfully shifted the balance of the court and Roe v Wade was overturned, 14 states enacted near-total abortion bans. As stories of the hardships of women and families have emerged, and Republicans attacked even basic fertility services, support for abortion rights has risen nationally and momentum swung decidedly to the left.

Still, the ballot measure in Arkansas faced an uphill battle. Polls note that the state is one of only five nationally where a minority of voters (46%) believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.