Arkansas Supreme Court rejects bid to put abortion on the ballot

Proposed amendment would have protected the right to an abortion up to 18 weeks, the state currently does not permit abortions except in limited cases

A proposed measure that would have allowed Arkansans to vote on expanding abortion rights in the state will not be on the ballot in November, the state Supreme Court said on Thursday.

In a 4-3 ruling, the majority of the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the secretary of state’s decision to reject the petition for the amendment, saying organizers behind the effort did not correctly submit the required number of signatures.

Arkansas For Limited Government, the group behind the petition, submitted more than 100,000 signatures in support of the amendment – exceeding the 90,704 required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

But the Arkansas Secretary of State denied the petition, saying the group failed to submit sworn statements that confirmed paid canvassers were instructed on how to collect roughly 14,000 of those signatures.

That left the petition at 87,675 – slightly less than the required amount.

Boxes containing signatures supporting a proposed ballot measure to scale back Arkansas' abortion ban are delivered to a room in the state Capitol on July 5 (AP)

“As such, we ordered the Secretary to count the signatures from volunteer canvassers, but we do not order him to count the signatures from paid canvassers. Because the number of the initial count of signatures fails to meet the facial validity threshold required by law, we deny further relief,” Justice Rhonda Wood wrote in the majority opinion.

The proposed amendment would have prevented the states from restricting access to abortion up to 18 weeks or in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies or to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.

Nearly all forms of abortion are outlawed in Arkansas except in cases where the pregnant person’s life is at risk.

The state does not provide exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised the state Supreme Court’s decision and took credit for building “the first conservative Supreme Court majority in the history of Arkansas.”

The crux of the case’s dispute was extremely technical.

The Arkansas Secretary of State argued that election officials could only count 87,675 of the collected signatures because they came from volunteers. But signatures collected from paid canvassers could not be counted because Arkansas for Limited Government did not submit the proper documentation for the paid canvassers in a bundle – rather they submitted it separately.

Supporters and opponents of a proposed ballot measure to scale back Arkansas' abortion ban hold signs outside the old Supreme Court chamber at the state Capitol in July (AP)

State law requires campaigns to submit documentation identifying each paid canvasser by name and confirm that they received training on the rules for gathering signatures.

In the dissenting opinion, Chief Justice John Kemp accused the court majority and the Arkansas Secretary of State of treating the petition differently from others.

“Why are the respondent and the majority determined to keep this particular vote from the people? The majority has succeeded in its efforts to change the law in order to deprive the voters of the opportunity to vote on this issue, which is not the proper role of this court,” Kemp wrote.

Arkansas For Limited Government called the decision “infuriating” and thanked the more than 800 volunteers who worked to coordinate signatures collections.

“We can’t — and won’t — rest until Arkansas women have access to safe, standard health care and the autonomy to make decisions about their bodies free from governmental interference,” the organization said.