Arkansas election officials have rejected petitions for an abortion-rights ballot measure that was aimed to be put before voters in a predominantly Republican state. The secretary of state’s office cited missing statements regarding paid signature gatherers as the reason for the petitions’ rejection. The group, Arkansans for Limited Government, submitted over 101,000 signatures last Friday, exceeding the required number of 90,704 signatures from registered voters and a specific distribution across 50 counties.

The proposed measure sought to prohibit laws banning abortion within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and permit the procedure later in specific circumstances such as rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health, or nonviable fetuses. This initiative mirrored the nationwide debate following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decentralized abortion rights to state-level decisions, triggering a surge of state-level actions.

Although aimed at testing support for abortion rights in a conservative state like Arkansas, the proposal faced opposition from national abortion rights organizations like Planned Parenthood due to its allowance of bans after 20 weeks of gestation. Notably, the current Arkansas law only permits abortion in cases of imminent threat to the mother’s life. Additionally, the Family Council Action Committee, an anti-abortion group, actively opposed the measure and published names of signature collectors and threatened legal challenges if the amendment proceeded to the ballot.