Signatures for a proposed abortion amendment and other ballot initiatives faced their vital push this week, many working on the 4th of July. The group Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) have been involved with collecting signatures for the abortion matter. Volunteers have until 5 p.m. Friday to collect 90,074 signatures from Arkansas registered voters to support their efforts.
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 woman’s life, since June 2022 when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Anti-abortion groups Arkansas Right to Life and the Family Council have led a “Decline to Sign” campaign encouraging voters not to sign petitions for the amendment. In June, the Family Council posted on its website a list of 79 people they claim to have been paid by AFLG to collect signatures.
As supporters of the amendment were racing against the clock to collect signatures by the deadline, someone sent out a fake email Thursday aimed at tricking volunteers to put down their clipboards. The email came from someone who claimed to be an organizer for the petition and it stated that the required signatures are all in hand, no need to collect anymore. AFLG was quick to claim this email as false.
Rebecca Bobrow, spokeswoman for Arkansans for Limited Government, released a statement following the anonymous deceitful email. “We’re aware of an email that reached many of our supporters from a sender pretending to be us and discouraging people from signing the petition today. Our campaign is working to get to the bottom of it, but we strongly suspect it came from the opposition,” Bobrow said. “This is not only an ugly tactic aimed at hampering our people-powered movement, but also a serious crime that we will treat as such. Once again, the opposition has proven that they know they can’t win without employing lies and fraud. The people of Arkansas are on the right side of this issue and all this silly little email has succeeded in doing is energizing us for these final hours.”
With the 5:00 P.M. deadline approaching, AFLG announced on their Facebook page that as of noon Friday, they will be delivering over 100,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. With these signatures, the Arkansas Abortion Amendment should qualify for the November ballot.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI