Despite Trump Insisting States Now Get to Vote on Abortion, Arkansas Won’t Let People Vote on Abortion

“Why are the respondent and the majority determined to keep this particular vote from the people?” Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Karen R. Baker wrote in her dissenting opinion regarding the court's decision to block an abortion rights measure from November's ballot.

By Kylie Cheung  |  August 27, 2024 | 1:49pm
Photo: Getty Images AbortionPolitics Abortion
Despite Trump Insisting States Now Get to Vote on Abortion, Arkansas Won’t Let People Vote on Abortion

In June, Donald Trump said—thanks to him—the reversal of Roe v. Wade has allowed states to vote on abortion, and that it’s been nothing short of a miracle of democracy to witness. “In many cases, it’s more liberal,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “In some cases, they’re going the other direction. But the people are deciding. … And in many ways, it’s a beautiful thing to watch.” “Beautiful” isn’t exactly the word I’d use for women and pregnant people being forced to beg thousands of strangers not to vote our human rights away, but sure. 

Then, on August 22, in Arkansas, the state Supreme Court upheld Secretary of State John Thurston’s decision to block an abortion rights initiative from appearing on the November ballot. The measure would have restored a right to abortion through 18 weeks, with exceptions for certain situations after this point. The state says organizers failed to submit necessary documents, but abortion rights organizers say this is a correctable technicality. So much for the “beautiful” right to vote directly on abortion.

In a 4-3 ruling, the court sided with Thurston, a Republican, who previously rejected the 102,000 signatures Arkansans for Limited Government collected over five months for its abortion measure, claiming the group had not submitted adequate training certifications for the paid canvassers it used in accordance with state law. AFLG submitted 87,675 signatures collected by volunteer canvassers that were eligible for review by Thurston’s office, but petitions need 90,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Karen R. Baker wrote, “Why are the respondent and the majority determined to keep this particular vote from the people? The majority has succeeded in its efforts to change the law in order to deprive the voters of the opportunity to vote on this issue.”

In their appeal, AFLG said it had submitted documentation for paid canvassers, and that they’d verified with the secretary of state’s office that they’d submitted everything that was asked of them. AFLG also argued that Thurston was misusing state law by unilaterally throwing out their petition due to some missing forms, which the campaign says is a correctable mistake.

The state Supreme Court holds a conservative majority after Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) appointed the court’s latest member, a former Arkansas state Republican Party chairman, in 2023. Huckabee Sanders smugly celebrated the ruling in a tweet last week: “Proud I helped build the first conservative Supreme Court majority in the history of Arkansas and today that court upheld the rule of law, and with it, the right to life.”

In a statement responding to the ruling, AFLG said it marked a “dark day” in the state’s history, but stressed that their fight continues: “Despite this infuriating result, our fight isn’t over. We can’t—and won’t—rest until Arkansas women have access to safe, standard health care and the autonomy to make decisions about their bodies free from governmental interference.”

Even before the Arkansas secretary of state’s office killed the months-long effort to restore abortion rights in the state on a technicality, an anti-abortion group in the state was doxxing organizers, sharing their personal information and accusing them of trying to “permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.” In other states, anti-abortion activists have posed as government officials to lie to voters about abortion ballot measures and to lie to voters that abortion rights organizers collecting signatures were stealing their “private data.” In Missouri, Republicans successfully prevented abortion rights organizers from even being able to begin collecting signatures for close to a year, though Missouri organizers ultimately prevailed, and their initiative was just certified for the ballot earlier this month. All of this is the inevitable outcome of Trump’s bullshit about the “beauty” of states individually voting on abortion.

“This effort has generated a wave of fiercely engaged Arkansas women. We are outraged. We will not back down,” AFLG said, calling on supporters to vote for candidates up and down the ballot who supported their abortion initiative. “We will remember this in November.”

On Friday, within hours of Arkansas’ Supreme Court decision, Trump posted on Truth Social that his second presidency would be “great for women and their reproductive rights,” ostensibly because women will be able to vote for our reproductive rights. But Arkansas just proved nothing could be further from the truth.

 
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