Arkansas– Arkansans for Limited Government a ballot question committee advocating for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024.
The proposed amendment would not allow the Arkansas government to control abortion, for the first 18 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, but after the only acceptations would be for in cases of rape, in cases of incest, in the event of a fatal fetal anomaly. The amendment goes on to say that an abortion will also be allowed after the given 18 weeks if in a physician’s good-faith medical judgment, abortion services are needed to protect a pregnant female’s life or to protect a pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.
The committee has been working for months to gather signatures. Earlier this month (July), the group turned in more than 102,00 signatures out of a needed nearly 90,000 signatures from registered voters.
The Arkansas Secretary of State, John Thurston rejected the submission. Thurston claimed the group failed to provide documents that identified paid canvassers by name as well as a signed statement that they had a copy of the recent edition of the state’s initiatives and referendum handbook.
The Director of Strategy for AFLG, Rebecca Bobrow told BN, “I will say that Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) denies that there was the paper-work error, at all. We hold that the Secretary of State had all the information they needed from us. In order to count and verify all the signatures.”
Now, the group has filed a complaint to the Arkansas State Supreme Court, saying, “The Secretary’s rejection of petitioners’ submission was incorrect and unlawful.”
The Secretary’s claim would remove more than 14,000 signatures, putting the committee under the amount of needed signatures. The Secretary of State denying any wrong-doing.