Arkansas’ abortion ballot amendment fiasco

The Ballot Measure: 

Arkansas for Limited Government submitted more than 100,000 signatures to the State’s Secretary of State to add a ballot measure about abortion to the Arkansas state ballot in November.

The ballot measure would allow Arkansans to vote on whether or not abortion in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal birth defect, or before 18 weeks, should be legal in the state. 

The Backlash: 

Arkansas for Limited Government submitted the signatures on July 5—and supporters went viral on TikTok for their celebration at Secretary of State John Thurston’s office. But on July 10, Arkansas for Limited Government’s petition was rejected by Thurston on a technicality. The state’s governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, ridiculed the abortion activists after their petition was rejected on X.

“Today the far left pro-abortion crowd in Arkansas showed they are both immoral and incompetent,” Sanders wrote on July 10.

Sanders received a slew of backlash for her statement. Responses to her tweet called her a “forced birther” and reminded her that 100,000+ people is still a portion of her constituency. (There are 1,765,681 registered voters in Arkansas.)

“Over 100,000 Arkansans signed this petition,” an X user replied to Sanders. “Why do you continue to belittle the citizens of this state?”

“That ‘crowd’ are still your constituents. You are Gov for the entire state of AR or are you for only the MAGA portion?” another person said. “Your statement was not necessary but you made your point to increase the division.”

The Background: 

It’s unclear what will happen with the ballot measure: Arkansas for Limited Government has challenged Thurston’s rejection and local outlet Arkansas Times uncovered that the technicality he rejected the group’s petition on was not entirely valid.

Other ballot measures about abortion across the country have been successful: In California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, and Ohio, voters decided via ballot measure to legalize abortion in varying ways since the Dobbs decision in 2022. And 12 states will have abortion on the ballot in November this year as well.

Only time will tell if Arkansas will, too.

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