Arkansas Attorney General Blocks Another Attempt to Legalize Abortions Up to Birth

Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin has denied a second attempt to put a radical amendment on the ballot that would allow abortions up to birth.

Last year, Griffin rejected a first attempt to legalize abortions up to birth in the Natural State known by the popular name of “The Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment.” It was shepherded by “Arkansas For Limited Government,” a pro-abortion group explicitly formed to put the measure on the ballot, similar to the group that was behind Ohio’s successful Issue 1 amendment.

Now, Griffin has rejected as second amendment — saying it needs further revisions before it can appear on the 2024 statewide ballot.

The initial proposal said state government entities would not be allowed to “prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict” Arkansans’ access to abortion “within 18 weeks of conception” although it would still have the practical effect of allowing abortions up to birth because of loopholes. The revised version replaced the word “conception” with “fertilization” and included a definition of the term, in response to one of Griffin’s concerns about the previous version.

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That was still not good enough.

The second draft also specified the health exception to cover only physical health, since Griffin said the first draft’s exception was too vague. The updated exception defined “physical health” as “a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury… caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or when continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”

Griffin said in Thursday’s opinion that the definition was potentially misleading.

“It defines ‘physical health,’ not as the absence of disorder, illness, or injury, but as the presence of those things,” Griffin wrote. “That is the opposite of the common meaning of ‘health.’… I suspect you intended something like this: to permit ‘abortion services’ when, among other things, they ‘are needed to protect the pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.’”

Now the abortion advocates will submit a third proposal. if accepted, backers would need to obtain over 90,000 signatures to get it on the ballot.

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