Group Hires Additional Canvassers to Pass Abortion Amendment

The group working to enshrine abortion into the Arkansas Constitution has hired 79 canvassers to collect signatures for its statewide petition drive, according to documents obtained from the Secretary of State via the Freedom of Information Act.

Arkansans for Limited Government has until July 5 to collect 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters. As of April 30, the group has raised nearly $350,000 for its campaign, and it appears at least some of that money is being used to pay petition canvassers.

State law lets ballot question committees hire Arkansas residents as petition canvassers to collect signatures.

The list obtained via FOIA indicates Arkansans for Limited Government currently has 79 paid canvassers — most of whom appear to be concentrated in central and northwest Arkansas.

The paid canvasser list was first acquired by Family Council Action Committee is available at FamilyCouncilActionCommittee.com.

If passed, the Arkansas Abortion 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.

The measure prevents the Arkansas Legislature from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy, and it automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment. That jeopardizes even the most basic health and safety restrictions on abortion.

The amendment’s health exceptions would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.

It 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.

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