Group Raises Nearly $350,000 to Put Abortion on the Ballot in Arkansas

The group working to enshrine abortion into the Arkansas Constitution raised $321,461 last month, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The newspaper writes,

Arkansans for Limited Government has raised a total of $348,506 according to a financial disclosure it provided the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Cheryl and Edward Huffman of Blytheville were the group’s biggest donors, giving Arkansans for Limited Government $150,000 in April.

Democratic Rep. Denise Garner, of Fayetteville, and her husband Hershey Garner, a physician and chair of Arkansans for Limited Government, donated $50,000 to the group in April. Steve Williams, a small business owner from Beebe, also donated $50,000 to the committee.

If passed, the amendment would write abortion into the state constitution, allowing thousands of elective abortions in Arkansas every year.

The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment. That jeopardizes even the most basic restrictions on abortion.

The amendment contains sweeping health exceptions that would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.

The amendment also would pave the way for publicly funded abortion in Arkansas by changing Amendment 68 to the Arkansas Constitution that currently prohibits taxpayer funded abortion in the state.

Arkansans have generally opposed taxpayer-funded abortion, but taxpayer-funded abortion through all nine months of pregnancy could become a reality in Arkansas if the abortion amendment passes.

To date, multiple organizations have come out against the amendment, including: