The Arkansas Supreme Court has affirmed the state’s decision to reject signature petitions for a November ballot measure that aimed to enshrine expanded access to abortion in the state constitution. The ruling has been met with approval from pro-life organizations.
In a divided 4–3 decision on August 22, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Secretary of State John Thurston acted legally when he dismissed petition signatures collected by paid canvassers.
“We find that the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification,” the court’s majority opinion reads.
However, the justices denied Thurston’s request to dismiss the legal challenge to his decision on jurisdictional grounds. Dissenting justices argued that he should have provided a “provisional cure period” for the group behind the ballot initiative to address issues with the signature collection.
The decision follows Secretary of State John Thurston’s rejection in July of Arkansans for Limited Government’s (AFLG) petition for the ballot initiative. Thurston cited the group’s failure to meet the state’s requirements for paid signature collectors in his letter to the organization.
The now-defunct ballot initiative proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would have permitted abortion up to 18 weeks of gestation without restrictions and beyond 18 weeks in cases of rape or incest, threats to the woman’s life or health, or when the baby was not expected to survive birth.
Currently, abortion is outlawed in Arkansas except in cases to save the life of the mother.
AFLG, which did not respond to a request for comment on the Arkansas Supreme Court ruling by the time of publication, had opposed Thurston’s rejection of the signatures. The group argued in a legal challenge that it should have been granted more time to submit the missing documentation.
The majority disagreed, asserting that the facts of the case were “undisputed” and that, as a matter of law, the state had properly rejected the signatures.
“As it failed to obtain this number of signatures, AFLG is not entitled to any further relief,” the majority wrote, while ordering Thurston to count 87,675 signatures for which there was no grounds for rejection.
However, this leaves AFLG roughly 3,000 signatures short of the 90,704 needed to put the initiative on the November ballot.
The dissenting justices supported the group, with Chief Justice John Dan Kemp arguing that he would have issued a conditional certification of the proposed amendment given the August 22 certification deadline.
Supporters of the Arkansas abortion amendment argued it would have protected women’s rights by expanding access to abortion in certain cases.
Arkansas pro-life groups praised the Supreme Court ruling, claiming that the amendment was too extreme.
“This is a good decision. The Arkansas Abortion Amendment is a deceptively worded measure that would write abortion into the state constitution,” Family Council Action Committee Executive Director Jerry Cox said in a statement.
“It legalizes unrestricted abortion for any reason during the first five months of pregnancy. Its various exceptions would allow abortions up to birth in many cases.”
“This is a good decision. The Arkansas Abortion Amendment is a deceptively worded measure that would write abortion into the state constitution,” Family Council Action Committee Executive Director Jerry Cox said in a statement.
“It legalizes unrestricted abortion for any reason during the first five months of pregnancy. Its various exceptions would allow abortions up to birth in many cases.”
“Arkansas’ women and unborn children will be protected from unrestricted abortion as a result [of the ruling],” he said. “Arkansas remains the most pro-life state in America. That’s something to celebrate.”
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that ended the nationwide right to abortion, there has been an effort to let voters in each state decide the issue individually.
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