Arkansas officials have rejected a referendum that aimed to relax the state’s strict abortion ban after canvassers delivered more than 101,000 signatures to state offices.
In a letter, Secretary of State John Thurston said he would deny the canvassers’ bid to appear on the November ballot because they had not submitted affidavits from paid canvassers.
“You have not filed any statements that meet this requirement,” Thurston said in a letter Wednesday. “Other sponsors of initiative petitions, however, did meet this requirement. Therefore, I must reject your submission.”
Thurston said that even if he had not rejected the referendum because of the lack of affidavits from paid voters, he would have rejected the signatures collected.
Of the 101,525 signatures submitted, 14,143 were collected by paid canvassers. Excluding them, that leaves 3,322 signatures short of what is required to appear on the fall ballot.
Republicans in the state were pleased with the rejection by the recruiters.
“Today is a great day for life in Arkansas,” said Arkansas State Senator Ben Gilmore. “Life is the most fundamental God-given human right, and Arkansas will continue to protect the lives of our unborn children.”
Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG), a reproductive rights organization in the state, called the exclusion “ridiculous,” said it had worked with the secretary of state’s office “on multiple occasions,” and called the affidavit requirement an “unfounded legal interpretation.”
“More than 101,000 Arkansans participated in this heroic act of direct democracy and stood up to show their support for access to health care,” AFLG said. “They deserve better than a state government that seeks to silence them.”
“We will fight this ridiculous attempt at disqualification with everything we have. We will not give up.”
The voting measure would have asked voters to allow abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy and longer in cases of rape, incest, when the pregnancy poses a life-threatening situation for the woman or when there is little chance that a fetus will survive.
Today, Arkansas bans abortion at conception, which affects 668,000 women of childbearing age. Although the state allows abortions in the case of medical emergencies, the state Department of Health reports zero abortions in 2023, according to NBC News.
Recent polls Support for abortion rights has grown since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided constitutional protections for abortion rights for nearly 50 years.
Before the Supreme Court decision, abortion restrictions were a strong point for the Republican Party. The issue of restrictions always rallied conservative voters, even though the party faced little risk of enacting severe restrictions.
After Donald Trump successfully shifted the balance of the court and overturned Roe v Wade, 14 states passed nearly complete abortion bans. As stories emerged about the hardships faced by women and families, and Republicans attacked even basic fertility services, support for abortion rights has surged nationally, with momentum shifting markedly to the left.
Still, the vote in Arkansas was an uphill battle. Polls show the state as one of the only five national where a minority of voters (46%) believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.