Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has, for the second time, rejected the wording of a proposed constitutional amendment which would make abortion a right within the state constitution.
Last November, a non-profit called For AR People (a group which recently joined others in a Ballot Question Committee, deceptively named “Arkansans for Limited Government”), presented an amendment to Griffin, which was dismissed in a response letter. “I must reject your popular name and ballot title due to ambiguities in the text of your proposed measure that prevent me from ensuring that the ballot title you have submitted, or any ballot title that I would substitute, is not misleading,” he wrote, adding that the proposed name “is tinged with partisan coloring and misleading because your proposal is solely related to abortion, not ‘reproductive healthcare’ generally.”
The only government limitation the “limited government” ballot question committee appears to be seeking is in the realm “reproductive healthcare,” otherwise known as ensuring that preborn human beings can still be legally killed. The group claims, “Government overreach is killing Arkansas women. The Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment currently before the Attorney General, would limit government interference in the personal healthcare decisions of Arkansans.”
The initiative was originally called the Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment, and was changed to The Arkansas Abortion Amendment. Yet Griffin argued in a new letter that the wording is still vague and confusing. Both proposals would allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, a “fatal fetal anomaly” or to protect a pregnant woman’s life or health, and it was this section that Griffin had an issue with. “It defines ‘physical health,’ not as the absence of disorder, illness, or injury, but as the presence of those things,” he wrote. “That is the opposite of the common meaning of ‘health.’”
He continued, “I suspect you intended something like this: to permit ‘abortion services’ when, among other things, they ‘are needed to protect the pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury… caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself….’ But that is not what your draft does.”
For this reason, the proposed amendment was turned down, but Griffin did give them the allowance to resubmit the ballot language for the third time. In a statement, For AR People said it was happy to see that Griffin “largely agrees with the proposed changes” and will work on a third proposal to be submitted soon.
If Griffin approves a third effort, then the organizers will need to collect 90,704 signatures by July 5th in order to have the language placed on the ballot for November. Since Roe v. Wade fell in 2022, the abortion industry has been pushing ballot initiatives such as this in multiple states, codifying the killing of preborn children as a “right” in numerous state constitutions.
In a previous press release, Arkansas Right to Life Executive Director Rose Mimms said the pro-abortion group’s goal is to have vague enough language that abortion will be permitted throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
“The broadly written language is so extreme that even pro-choice voters will see it goes too far,” she said. “It clearly allows abortions up to the moment of birth and mandates that even the most basic limits on the profit-driven abortion industry are removed. The proposed constitutional amendment is not about limited government, it’s about forcing no limit abortion on the people of Arkansas.”
Correction, 1/7/24: This article was updated to reflect that For AR People and Arkansans for Limited Government are two separate entities. We regret the error.
