The Arkansas secretary of state on Wednesday rejected an effort to place a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights on the November ballot, saying organizers failed to submit some required paperwork with its signatures.
In a letter to the organization behind the effort, Arkansans for Limited Government, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston wrote that organizers did not submit statements that the group had explained various requirements about the signature-collection process in the state to its paid canvassers and did not identify those paid canvassers by name.
“By contrast, other sponsors of initiative petitions complied with this requirement. Therefore, I must reject your submission,” wrote Thurston, a Republican.
Rebecca Bobrow, a spokesperson for Arkansans for Limited Government, confirmed to NBC News that the group had received the letter and was evaluating what to do next.
“Our legal team is reviewing the letter from the Secretary of State. We will have more to say shortly,” Bobrow said in a statement.
Arkansans for Limited Government announced Friday that it collected the signatures of more than 100,000 registered voters — more than the approximately 90,700 it needed before a July 5 deadline — to move forward with the process of getting their proposal on the general election ballot.
In his letter, Thurston said that the number of signatures affected by the lack of required paperwork was 14,143, leaving the group short of the required amount.
Arkansas is among 11 states where organizers formally launched an effort to place a pro-abortion rights amendment on the fall ballot.
The measures are officially on the ballot in six states: Colorado, Maryland, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada and New York. Organizers in another four — Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska — have submitted signatures, but further steps remain before those initiatives are certified to appear on the ballot.
Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, the group behind the abortion rights amendment in Montana, announced Wednesday they filed a lawsuit alleging the Montana secretary of state’s office is, “unlawfully blocking the verification of potentially thousands of valid signatures by qualified Montana electors.”
Abortion rights advocates had faced staunch opposition to their ballot measure proposal in deeply conservative Arkansas.
Currently, nearly all abortions in Arkansas are banned under a 2022 state law that snapped into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The state’s law only makes exceptions for abortion 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. And American United for Life, an anti-abortion rights group, rated Arkansas as “the most pro-life state in America” in 2024.
In addition, Arkansans for Limited Government — unlike the coalitions fighting for similar measures in other states — does not have any support or backing from major national abortion rights groups, such as Planned Parenthood, which has said the measure doesn’t go far enough in its goals of expanding abortion access.
The group’s proposal would protect abortion access in the state up to 18 weeks after fertilization. It 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.
