Abortion rights defenders in Arkansas said Thursday it was “a dark day” after the state’s Supreme Court ruled a ballot measure that would enshrine stronger reproductive rights protections for people in the state was ineligible for November election ballots.
The court ruled 4-3 in favor of arguments presented by Republican officials including Secretary of State John Thurston and Attorney General Tim Griffin, who said organizers with Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) — which submitted more than 101,000 signatures to secure the amendment for the ballot — had failed to correctly submit paperwork verifying that paid canvassers had been properly trained.
AFLG strategy director Rebecca Bobrow expressed agreement with Justice Karen Baker’s dissent, which accused Thurston of making up statutory requirements “out of whole cloth” and of being “determined to keep this particular vote from the people” at all costs.
AFLG proposed an amendment that would have allowed people in Arkansas to obtain abortion care up to 18 weeks after fertilization, with additional exceptions for incest, rape, and fetal anomalies that would make it impossible for a fetus to survive after birth. Arkansas currently has one of the strictest abortion bans in the U.S., with abortion care allowed only in medical emergencies.
When Thurston rejected the group’s petition last month, saying it had failed to submit an official statement regarding the training of its paid canvassers, AFLG sued to force the state to count all the signatures, which surpassed the 90,704 that were needed for the ballot initiative to be approved.
About 14,000 of the group’s signatures were collected by paid canvassers, so the number of signatures gathered by unpaid volunteers — 87,675 — fell below the threshold.
As the Arkansas Times reported, the secretary of state’s handbook on petitions states that an affidavit certifying that canvassers received training is a requirement for submitting petitions — but the three dissenting justices on Thursday wrote “that the actual statutory language appears to show that the paperwork oversight should not be fatal to the group’s effort. And the handbook cannot overrule the law.”
“Despite collecting signatures from more than 100,000 Arkansans — and despite the fact that the plain language of the statutes appeared to show that the review process for the petition should have continued — the court ruled that paperwork omission was fatal to the group’s effort,” wrote David Ramsey and Matt Campbell at the Arkansas Times. “For those following the case, this has always been the fear: Even if the law was on their side, the majority of the court opposes abortion. Ultimately the law is what the Supreme Court says it is. Among the grab-bag of flimsy arguments offered by Attorney General Tim Griffin, they found a couple they could stretch to suit the purpose of disqualifying the abortion petition.”
Baker wrote in her dissent that “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.”
Compared to other ballot initiatives, she added, Thurston and the court’s right-wing majority treated the abortion right amendment “differently for the sole purpose of preventing the people from voting on this issue.”
Ramsey and Campbell wrote that AFLG could theoretically file a lawsuit in federal court challenging the ruling.
“But for procedural and timing reasons, that is extremely unlikely to help,” they wrote. “In all likelihood, it’s over: Citizens will not have the opportunity to vote to restore abortion rights in November.”
Arkansas state Sen. Greg Leding (D-30) called the ruling “maddening and heartbreaking” and urged voters to consider abortion rights when they cast their ballots in November, regardless of whether the amendment is on ballots.
It’s maddening and heartbreaking that the Arkansas Abortion Amendment won’t be on the ballot this fall, but that doesn’t mean Arkansans don’t get to vote on the issue.
— Greg Leding (@GregLeding) August 22, 2024
Ask your legislative candidates for their stance. Ask if they support our total ban.
And vote accordingly.
Bobrow told supporters that AFLG’s fight “isn’t over” despite the “infuriating” decision.
“We can’t — and won’t — rest until Arkansas women have access to safe, standard healthcare and the autonomy to make decisions about their bodies free from governmental interference,” said Bobrow. “This effort has generated a wave of fiercely engaged Arkansas women. We are outraged. We will not back down. And we will remember this in November.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.