A proposed amendment to enshrine access to abortion care in the Arkansas state constitution got one step closer to appearing on the November 2024 ballot, after the group behind it submitted the required number of valid signatures on Friday.
Arkansans for Limited Government, the group leading the ballot effort, said it had collected the signatures of more than 100,000 registered voters — more than the approximately 90,700 it needed to submit before a July 5 deadline to move forward with the process of getting their proposal on the ballot.
The group — which, unlike the coalitions fighting for similar measures in other states, does not include any support or backing from major national abortion rights groups, such as Planned Parenthood — said it had also fulfilled a requirement under state law that the total include the signatures of registered voters from at least 50 of the state’s 75 counties.
The announcement means that Arkansas is now the final of the nine states where organizers seeking to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions in November have formally submitted the required number of signatures to advance the process. (In another two, New York and Maryland, lawmakers control the amendment placement process).
The measures are officially on the ballot in Colorado, Maryland, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada and New York. Arkansas is now among the other five (along with Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska) where organizers have submitted signatures but further steps remain before the measure is certified to appear on the ballot.
In Arkansas, the group’s proposal which is called the Arkansas Abortion Amendment, would protect abortion access in the state constitution up to 18 weeks after fertilization. The proposal would also protect abortion access for all pregnancies beyond that point that were the result of rape and incest and in all instances where there is a fatal fetal anomaly and when abortion care is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or physical health.
Currently, nearly all abortion care in Arkansas is banned under a 2022 state law that snapped into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The state’s current law only makes exceptions for abortion care when the mother’s life is at risk. The Arkansas Department of Health has said that zero abortions were reported performed in the state in 2023.
Passage of the amendment in November would effectively undo the 2022 law.
That outcome, however, faces an uphill climb.
Abortion opponents in the ruby red state have fought the effort to advance the proposed amendment at every turn.
And unlike in nearly all of the other states where an abortion rights amendment is already, or is likely to be, on the ballot this fall, polls in Arkansas broadly show that a majority of voters oppose the notion that abortion should be legal in all or most situations.
Underscoring those challenges is the fact that organizers needed every last moment to exceed the 90,700 signatures they needed to continue the ballot process. As of Monday, organizers had said they were still about 10,000 signatures short of reaching their overall goal and were still looking at 10 counties where they hadn’t met the per-county requirements.
In addition, American United for Life, an anti-abortion group, rated Arkansas as “the most pro-life state in America” in 2024.
Lindsey Pipia contributed.
