The Arkansas Supreme Court denied on Thursday a bid to add an abortion measure to the November ballot that would have enshrined more exceptions into the state’s constitution.
The Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024 sought to expand the state’s current abortion law to grant additional exceptions in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies and in cases a doctor finds it necessary to “protect a pregnant female’s life or to protect a pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.” The court upheld Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston’s decision to reject the ballot initiative for failing to complete the required paperwork to have the measure assessed.
The court’s majority argued that Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) failed to prove the certification of the canvassers who collected signatures for the ballot, making the signatures collected by the unapproved canvassers void and disqualifying the petition.
“We find that the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification,” the court decision read. “AFLG needed 90,704 signatures to complete the first stage of the initial facial count to proceed to the verification stage. As it failed to obtain this number of signatures, AFLG is not entitled to any further relief.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Karen R. Baker argued the proposal should still be valid as the petitioner did submit the required documentation before the July 5 deadline, and that nothing in the statute requires all paperwork to be filed simultaneously. Chief Justice John Dan Kemp wrote in a separate dissenting opinion that the secretary did not fulfill his obligation to complete an initial review and argued a provisional cure period should be granted and more time and information should be given to the court to decide the case.
“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,” Baker wrote.
Current Arkansas law prohibits abortion except in cases of medical emergencies in which the mother’s life is in danger.
“The Arkansas Supreme Court confirmed today that the abortion advocates failed to follow the law that other ballot committees had successfully followed for over a decade since Governor Mike Beebe signed the law governing paid canvassers in 2013,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement. “This is a win for the rule of law in Arkansas and for those who have followed the rules for years to participate in the state’s ballot initiative process.”
Thurston and AFLG did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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