On January 23, 2024, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin certified the language of the “Arkansas Abortion Amendment” after having rejected two previously proposed versions of the amendment due to lack of clarity. The supporters of the amendment began collecting the signatures needed for this initiative to be placed on the November ballot.
A “Decline to Sign” campaign was started and Bishop Taylor of the Diocese of Little Rock issued articles and statements addressing the problems with the amendment. Click here for more information.
The amendment would allow unrestricted abortion up to a certain gestational age and would gut current laws that offer protections to mother and child, provisions such as requiring ultrasounds to determine a baby’s age or requiring that the mother is informed and gives her consent for the abortion.
On July 5, 2024, proponents for the abortion amendment submitted more than 10,000 signatures above the number needed to proceed to the signature approval phase. The process was stalled because of a legal complaint brought against the Secretary of State over signatures that were rendered invalid. An attorney for the State filed a motion to dismiss the complaint and now the case is before the Arkansas Supreme Court. Both parties (Secretary of State and amendment supporters) filed briefs to the AR Supreme Court while the Secretary of State’s deadline to certify measures for the November ballot was set for Aug. 22.
On August 22, The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s rejection of signature petitions for an abortion rights ballot initiative on Thursday, keeping the proposal from going before voters in November. The court ruled 4-3 that “the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification.”
