LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Supporters of a proposal to ask voters to overturn Arkansas’ abortion ban sued the state Tuesday, alleging reject their petitions to get the measure on the ballot in November.
Arkansans for Limited Government, the group backing the proposed constitutional amendment, has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn the state’s decision and order the state to begin counting its signatures. The secretary of state’s office said July 10 that the group had not filed required affidavits regarding the paid signature gatherers it used. The group has said the documentation it did submit — including a list of the gatherers — met legal requirements.
The group submitted more than 101,000 signatures by the state’s July 5 deadline, which would have been enough if they had been certified. They needed at least 90,704 signatures from registered voters and a minimum of 50 counties.
Election officials pointed to a 2013 Arkansas law that requires campaigners to file statements identifying each paid canvasser by name and confirming that the rules for collecting signatures have been explained to them.
State documents show that the group filed a signed affidavit on June 27, listing the paid canvassers and stating that the rules of the petition had been explained to them. Additionally, the July 5 filing included affidavits from all of the paid signature gatherers, acknowledging that the initiative group had provided them with all of the rules and regulations required by law.
The State argued that this documentation did not meet the requirements because it was not signed by the initiative’s sponsor and because not all of these documents were attached to the signed petitions.
Despite these disagreements, the initiative group says Arkansas law requires them to be given the opportunity to provide the necessary documentation so the state can begin counting the signatures.
The proposed amendment would prohibit laws that abortion in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, and allow later abortions in cases of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or if the fetus is unlikely to survive birth.
The United States Supreme Court the national right to abortion has been abolished in 2022 with a ruling that created a national push to let voters decide the issue stands for state. In Arkansas, abortion is now illegal at any point during pregnancy unless it is necessary to protect the mother’s life in the event of a medical emergency.
Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the current bill. Giving voters a chance to weigh in on a constitutional amendment would test support for abortion rights in the state, where top elected officials regularly promote their opposition to abortion.
Litigating this effort to reinstate the petitions could be tricky. Conservatives hold a majority of seats on the seven-member Arkansas Supreme Court.
The proposal did not receive support from national abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood because it would still ban abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, earlier than in other states where abortion is legal.