Proposed Arkansas abortion amendment meets signature threshold • Arkansas Advocate

Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to expand abortion access in Arkansas packed a hallway in the state Capitol Friday afternoon and cheered while movers delivered boxes full of petitions to put the amendment to a statewide vote in November.

The group behind the proposed amendment announced midday Friday it had exceeded the minimum threshold for county and statewide totals needed to qualify for the ballot. 

Arkansans for Limited Government delivered over 100,000 signatures from 53 counties, more than the required 90,704 signatures from 50 counties, to the Secretary of State’s office ahead of Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

“A lot of people across the nation kind of look at the South as a hopeless cause, and I think we’ve proven that, with this many signatures, we can make change here and we can protect reproductive rights here,” said medical student Margaret Woodruff, who wore the words “future abortion provider” taped to a white lab coat.

The measure must await formal certification from the secretary of state and then survive expected legal challenges before being presented to voters in November.

AFLG expressed its gratitude to voters and its belief “that healthcare is personal and private” in a statement Friday.

“Bodily autonomy and the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship are values that transcend party politics, economics, and religion,” the statement reads. “Healthcare decisions, including decisions about reproductive health, should be made between patients and their healthcare team.” 

The Arkansas Abortion Amendment would not allow government entities to “prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization.” The proposal would also permit abortion services in cases of rape, incest, a fatal fetal anomaly or to “protect the pregnant female’s life or physical health,” and it would nullify any of the state’s existing “provisions of the Constitution, statutes and common law” that conflict with it.

Abortion has been illegal in Arkansas, except to save the pregnant person’s life, since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The amendment’s supporters on Friday held signs with slogans such as “Trust women,” “The people rule” and “Arkansans know best.”

The group chanted “This is what democracy looks like” and “I know my body,” repeatedly cheering as movers flanked by Capitol police delivered more and more boxes, labeled by county, to the committee room where the Secretary of State’s office will count and verify signatures.

Alison Guthrie, an activist and canvasser for the amendment, said she was holding back tears during the delivery, especially since roughly 20,000 signatures had been gathered since Monday.

“It feels absolutely unreal,” she said. “It feels a little bit like justice… It’s just an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Everyone worked so hard, so it’s motivating and it’s inspiring, and it makes me feel a lot more hopeful about Arkansas.”

Arkansans for Limited Government was about 10,000 signatures shy of the minimum at the start of the week, but made a strong effort to gather last-minute signatures, including on Independence Day when an email claiming to be from the organization caused confusion by stating no more signatures were needed. AFLG quickly alerted supporters that the misleading email was not from them and encouraged people to continue signing petitions. 

Supporters of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment have faced a number of challenges throughout the campaign, including a “Decline to Sign” effort encouraging voters not to sign petitions for the amendment. The effort was led by anti-abortion groups Arkansas Right to Life and the Family Council, the latter of which posted on its website a list of 79 people paid by AFLG to collect signatures.

AFLG called the post attempted intimidation; the Family Council has since removed the list from the post but has kept it publicly available on its political action committee website. Acquiring and publishing the list is legal under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

The Family Council Action Committee announced Friday it would support legal challenges against the abortion amendment if it’s approved for the November ballot. 

Stronger Arkansas, a ballot question committee whose members have close ties to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also opposed the proposed amendment. Sanders’ former gubernatorial campaign manager Chris Caldwell leads the group, which proclaimed in a statement that Arkansas will remain “the most pro-life state in America” in 2024. 

“Only 5% of registered voters signed the radical abortion-until-birth petition, and we are confident when we hear from the other 95% that Hillary Clinton and her far-left allies from New York and California will be defeated,” the statement reads.

Opponents of the amendment at the Capitol on Friday held their own signs that said “Decline to sign,” “Pray to end abortion” and “Life: the first inalienable right.” The two groups rarely interacted throughout the afternoon. Supporters of the measure outnumbered opponents.

Jo Ann Craig, who opposed the amendment, said she was sad to see so much support for it and hoped for “a big conversion of everyone’s hearts.”

“I honestly thought that people from outside our state had just manipulated our state [because] they wanted to get their signatures,” Craig said. “…If they’re not being tricked and they know exactly what they’re doing, that makes me sad.”

A unique challenge to the Arkansas Abortion Amendment has been a lack of national support. While several states have approved citizen-led abortion-rights initiatives over the last two years and more are pursuing similar efforts, Arkansas’ has been controversial among reproductive justice advocates because it would reinstate an abortion policy more restrictive than under Roe v. Wade. For this reason, major national abortion-rights groups have not been involved in promoting or funding the campaign, Slate reported.

“We never counted ourselves out, and I hope we’ve demonstrated to the world that reproductive liberty is a winning issue even in seemingly unexpected places,” AFLG spokesperson Rebecca Bobrow said in a Friday email. “We’ve been people-powered from beginning to end, and today’s success is a hopeful testament to the unrelenting and courageous work of our more than 800 volunteers, who often bore the brunt of the burden from our doubters and detractors.”

After overcoming six months of hurdles, AFLG acknowledged its accomplishment Friday, but also the additional work that lies ahead.

“We are proud of our fellow Arkansans for rejecting the state’s extreme abortion ban and taking the first, important step towards protecting pregnant women now and in the future,” AFLG said in a statement. “We celebrate our accomplishments today, but on Monday we get back to work because women’s lives are at stake. The hardest job is ahead of us, and we will not fail.”

Woodruff and another medical student, Cat Davis, said the amendment’s likelihood of being on the November ballot gave them hope, not only for their future careers but for the healthcare landscape of Arkansas and the South. The amendment could help combat Arkansas’ infant and maternal mortality rates, which data has shown are the highest in the nation, Woodruff said.

Additionally, fewer medical students have sought to practice in states with abortion bans since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to a study released in early May by the Association of American Medical Colleges Research and Action Institute.

“We need good providers in Arkansas, and I think this [amendment] is a good step towards that,” Davis said.