Groups supporting a bill to enshrine abortion rights in the Arkansas Constitution submitted petitions to state officials on Friday, the deadline for submitting ballot questions.
The group Arkansas for Limited Government said it had submitted more than 100,000 signatures. 90,704 needed to move forward, Fort Smith Southwest Times Record report.
Rebecca Bobrow, strategic director for the group Arkansas for Limited Government, told the newspaper on Monday that the campaign fell short of its goal of about 10,000 signatures.
“I expect it will be a close race and tense all the way to the end,” she said in an email. “It will undoubtedly be an exciting and stressful race to the finish line.”
“Would you believe,” she said in a text message Friday morning, “more (signature) packets are being sent to us as we speak!”
The Arkansas bill would not allow states to “ban, penalize, delay or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks after fertilization, which is approximately 20 weeks after the first day of a pregnant woman’s last menstrual period.”
Proposed amendment It would also allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality, or “to protect the life of the pregnant woman, or to protect a pregnant woman from physical disability, physical disease, or physical injury.”
Abortion is currently illegal in Arkansas except in medical emergencies to save the pregnant woman’s life.
The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office must notify the ballot question committee within 30 days whether it qualifies and whether any submitted signatures need to be corrected. Times Record“Committees will be notified once they have been formally determined to be qualified, and the ballot question is expected to be publicly certified by August 22,” the report continues, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Left-wing activists in at least 11 states have begun working to put abortion on the November ballot, with constitutional amendments now officially on the ballot in six states: Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and New York. Activists in Nebraska and Arizona also filed petitions this week to introduce abortion bills in their states.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X. Follow.
