Arkansas Activists Submit Signatures for Proposed Abortion Amendment

The group behind a measure that would enshrine a right to abortion in the Arkansas Constitution submitted signatures to state officials on Friday, which was the deadline for ballot question submissions. 

The group, Arkansans for Limited Government, said it had submitted more than 100,000 signatures, more than the 90,704 required to advance, the Fort Smith Southwest Times Record reported.

Rebecca Bobrow, director of strategy at Arkansans for Limited Government, told the publication on Monday that the campaign was then around 10,000 signatures shy of their goal. 

“I suspect it is going to be close and come down to the wire,” she said in an email. “It’s certainly an exciting/stressful race to the finish line.”

“If you can believe it,” she said in a text Friday morning, “more (signature) packets are still being turned into us as we speak.”

The Arkansas measure would not allow the state government to “prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization, which equates to approximately 20 weeks since the first day of the pregnant female’s last menstrual period.”

The amendment would also allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, a fatal fetal anomaly, or “to protect a pregnant female’s life or to protect a pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.”

Abortion is currently outlawed in Arkansas except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.

The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office has 30 days to notify ballot question committees whether they qualify and if they are required to cure any submitted signatures, according to the Times Record. According to the Secretary of State’s offices, “committees will be notified as they’re found to be officially eligible, and ballot questions should be publicly certified by Aug. 22,” the report continues.

Left-wing activists in at least 11 states have launched efforts to place abortion on the ballot in November — and proposed constitutional amendments have officially qualified for the ballots in six of those states, including Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, and New York. Activists in Nebraska and Arizona also submitted signatures this week for abortion measures in their states. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.