Important Takeaways:
- Tens of millions of voters in Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York and South Dakota will be asked how their state should regulate abortion.
- Most of the initiatives in those 10 states would allow abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered about 24 weeks, or later only in instances when the health of the pregnant woman is at risk.
- Pro-choice advocates hope that by having voters directly decide to enshrine abortion in states’ laws, they can bypass the ups and downs of state courts.
- But there’s another reason why some want abortion on the ballot – voter turnout.
- Democrats hope that more people who support abortion rights, who overwhelmingly vote for the party, will show up on election day because the issue is on the ballot.
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Important Takeaways:
- Organizers didn’t submit all the required paperwork for the measure to appear on the November ballot, Secretary of State John Thurston said.
- “By contrast, other sponsors of initiative petitions complied with this requirement. Therefore, I must reject your submission,” wrote Thurston, a Republican.
- Rebecca Bobrow, a spokesperson for Arkansans for Limited Government, said that the group “will fight this ridiculous disqualification attempt with everything we have.”
- Arkansas is one of 11 states where organizers formally launched efforts to place pro-abortion-rights amendments on their fall ballots.
- The measures are officially on the ballots in six states: Colorado, Maryland, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada and New York. Organizers in four more — Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska — have submitted signatures, but further steps remain before those initiatives are certified to appear on the ballots.
- Arkansans for Limited Government — unlike the coalitions fighting for similar measures in other states — does not have any support or backing from major national abortion-rights groups, such as Planned Parenthood, which has said the measure does not go far enough in its goals of expanding abortion access.
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