Abortion Campaign Employs 152 Paid Petition Canvassers

The group working to enshrine abortion in the Arkansas Constitution continues to hire canvassers to circulate petitions, according to public documents Family Council Action Committee obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

Family Council Action Committee published the list of 152 paid petition canvasser on its website on Tuesday. Under Arkansas law, paid petition canvassers must be residents of Arkansas. They must pass a criminal background check, and their information must be properly recorded with the Secretary of State’s Office.

Arkansans for Limited Government has until July 5 to collect 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the November ballot.

The measure 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 basic health and safety restrictions on abortion — including parental-consent and informed-consent requirements.

The amendment’s various 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.

Canvassers are believed to be focusing on these 23 counties during the final weeks of the petition drive: