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Arkansas’ GOP secretary of state rejects pro-abortion group’s amendment proposal – LifeSite

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LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (LifeSiteNews) — A left-wing group seeking to add a “right” to abortion in the Arkansas state constitution has been told its proposal does not have enough signatures to be placed before voters on the November 5 ballot. 

In a letter published on Wednesday, Arkansas’ Republican Secretary of State John Thurston announced that “Arkansans for Limited Government” is 3,322 signatures short of the required 90,704 to have its amendment initiative voted on later this year.  

Thurston, elected to the role in 2018, informed the organization that it failed to identify the names of the paid canvassers it relied on to collect the signatures. Nor did the group clarify that canvassers were given proper information regarding the requirements needed to obtain those signatures. 

“Other sponsors of initiative petitions complied with this requirement,” Thurston wrote. “Therefore, I must reject your submission.” 

Rebecca Bobrow, director of strategy for Arkansans for Limited Government, was predictably furious with the rejection, as the state’s attorney general has blocked the group’s proposal twice previously, once in November 2023 and again in January 2024 due to language “ambiguities.” 

“We will fight this ridiculous disqualification attempt with everything we have,” she said in a statement. “We will not back down.” 

Abortion is banned in Arkansas throughout all nine months of pregnancy, with an exception for when it is allegedly “necessary to preserve the life of a pregnant woman” from a physical condition. Direct abortion is always gravely immoral and never needed nor ethically justified to save a mother’s life.

Americans United for Life, a pro-life law firm based in Washington, D.C., has ranked Arkansas “the most pro-life state in America” for the past four years. In 2023, the state reported zero abortions, down from over 3,000 just three years ago.  

Popular Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has solidified the state’s ruby red status by enacting strong pro–family and pro-life policies during her time in office, which began in 2023. That year, the state gave $1 million to pregnancy centers.  

According to the Arkansas-based Family Council, the proposed amendment would “permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.” The group has also warned that it is “more extreme than Roe v. Wade, and would allow thousands of elective abortions on healthy women and unborn children every year.” 

In a Facebook post on July 5, Arkansans for Limited Government said it obtained more than 100,000 signatures from citizens in all 75 counties in the state. Current Arkansas law requires a minimum of 90,704 signatures from persons in at least 50 counties to ensure a ballot proposal is voted on.  

In his statement, Thurston noted that 14,143 of them were collected by paid canvassers rather than volunteers, and that because those persons’ identities could not be verified, the total number of signatures collected was dropped to 87,382, which is 3,322 less than the needed amount. 

Huckabee Sanders drew attention to the group’s failure in an X post on Wednesday.  

“Today the far-left pro-abortion crowd in Arkansas showed they are both immoral and incompetent,” she said 

According to NBC News, Arkansas is one of 11 states where pro-abortion groups have initiated the process to place proposals before voters this fall. Thus far, New York, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada, Colorado, Maryland have already done so. Montana, Nebraska, and Arizona are expected to follow suit in the near future. 

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