Champions for the unborn received good news last week as Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston announced that a late-term abortion amendment would not be on the ballot this year. “Arkansans for Limited Government” failed to comply with the laws regarding paid canvassers who were collecting sensitive voter information. Though the pro-abortion group submitted more than the required number of signatures, more than 14,000 signatures gathered by paid canvassers had to be thrown out.
The development removes Arkansas from the list of states where all-trimester abortion could be in front of the voters this November. Though some of the measures include the word “viability,” the broad loopholes in the proposals which allow an abortionist to decide when it’s necessary for a woman to have an abortion effectively allow elective abortion in all nine months. The measures also take away parental rights laws and eliminate health and safety protections for women.
These are the six red states where pro-life laws protecting 52,409 lives annually are still at stake:
Arizona’s abortion amendment is solely about legalizing elective second- and third-trimester abortions. Arizona has a law in place protecting unborn babies at 15 weeks, the point science shows they feel pain. When the legislature repealed the state’s life at conception law and moved protections back to 15 weeks, Democrats did not relent in their quest to enshrine abortion in the constitution. They instead went on to turn in over 800,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office. Those signatures are still being processed but with the submission of more than double of what is required by state law, succeeding in court to expose deficiencies in the signatures that were submitted will be a tall hill to climb.
The amendment is not necessary for pregnant women to receive emergency care, according to Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes. Every state with a pro-life law, including Arizona, has a life of the mother exception that allows treatment of women who experience a serious condition during pregnancy. In guidance issued in June, Mayes says, “the definition of ‘abortion’ excludes the use of any means … to terminate an ectopic pregnancy” or to treat a miscarriage. She also states, “Once a treating physician forms a good faith clinical judgment,” the statute “does not require her to wait for a patient to deteriorate or inch closer to death.”
The campaign behind the ballot measure, however, has yet to take down ads with the life-threatening abortion misinformation Mayes sought to address. As one of their Facebook ads which started running two weeks after Mayes’ guidance was issued says, “Women’s LIVES are already being put in jeopardy.” In another example, a video on the campaign’s homepage has a man in a white coat talking about his daughter saying, “I don’t want to sit passively by in the fight for her life.”
Florida is the only red state thus far guaranteed to have abortion on the ballot this year. In April, Florida’s Supreme Court issued dual abortion decisions to uphold the state’s pro-life law and allow the abortion amendment to stay on the ballot this election. Democrats, however, have long recognized an abortion ballot fight in Florida as an uphill climb. According to Politico, White House staff warned early on that “the ballot initiative wouldn’t survive Florida’s conservative climate.” Florida is unique in that it requires constitutional amendments to meet a threshold of 60% approval in order to pass. This is a tall order that couldn’t even be achieved in the swing states of Michigan and Ohio. Both states’ abortion measures passed with 56% of the vote.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ willingness to fight also poses a major problem for the abortion lobby. The governor has used his platform to shed light on how the measure allows brutal abortions in all-trimesters and removes parental rights by taking away parental consent. In June, it was reported that DeSantis had launched the Freedom Fund to defeat the abortion and marijuana ballot measures. In a world where pro-abortion forces have hold of all of the major institutions from academia and many C-Suites to Hollywood and the media, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ vocal opposition could be the game changer.
In Florida, amendments are presented with a fiscal impact statement on the ballot. After ACLU sued to have a new summary written, the committee finalized an updated fiscal summary accurately concluding the amendment could require taxpayer funding of abortions, eliminate the rights of parents and eliminate health and safety standards for moms based on ACLU lawsuits in Michigan and Ohio after abortion amendments passed in those states.
In Missouri, Planned Parenthood has been in hot water following the release of a video from Project Veritas last year where an employee was caught trying to traffic a child out of state. In the footage, a Great Plains employee allegedly offered to help a man transport his 13-year-old girl girlfriend to a Kansas Planned Parenthood facility for an abortion, saying, “We never tell the parents anything. She’s an adult in our clinics.” In response, Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit for the violation of parental consent and Gov. Mike Parson signed a law preventing abortion businesses from receiving Medicaid funding.
Dealt these major blows by Republicans, Planned Parenthood is backing the Missouri abortion ballot measure to mandate taxpayer funding for abortion and eliminate the state’s parental consent laws. The ballot measure would also allow all-trimester abortion and remove health and safety regulations on Planned Parenthood, which had to close a facility in 2018 for using moldy abortion equipment on women for months.
Abortion activists collected more than double the signatures they need to place the amendment to increase Planned Parenthood’s profits on the ballot. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office has a deadline of August 13 to verify signatures.
Montana’s current law allowing abortion until a baby reaches viability isn’t enough for Democrats. Last month, they submitted signatures for the all-trimester abortion amendment that would end the lives of babies who can survive outside of the womb.
In Montana, the ballot measure process involves the counties where election officials must verify signatures and send the totals to the Secretary of State. Last week, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen made headlines for telling counties they must follow the requirement in state law to count the signatures from qualified voters only. The abortion lobby is now suing over Jacobsen’s guidance to the counties and holding up the signature counting process, with an initial lower court ruling that inactive voter signatures should be counted.
Nebraska is the only state that is likely to have a pro-life ballot measure this November. On July 3, Protect Women & Children submitted signatures to place a measure on the ballot protecting Nebraska babies from painful second- and third-trimester abortions. The group comprised of medical professionals which began its efforts in March collected more than 205,000 signatures from all counties in the states – well over the 123,000 valid signatures required. In contrast, the abortion amendment that would enshrine all-trimester abortion in the constitution began its work in October and was only able to collect 2,000 more signatures than the pro-life group.
According to 2023 data released by Nebraska’s Health and Human Services Department, there was a 9% decrease in abortions and 69% drop in abortions after 12 weeks last year. Gov. Jim Pillen signed the state’s 12-week pro-life bill into law last May which went into effect immediately.
The Secretary of State is still processing signatures for both abortion amendments.
The pro-abortion group behind South Dakota’s ballot measure ‘Dakotans For Health’ has made headlines for not observing state law throughout the signature gathering process. Last year, their paid signature gatherers were admonished by the attorney general for breaking the law by deceiving voters into signing petitions. Attorney General Marty Jackley issued a warning letter to the group saying, “Any suggestion that your proposed abortion amendment makes abortion legal only for the first trimester is contrary to the language of the proposed amendment.”
Now litigation is currently underway over Dakotans For Health’s failure to provide the legally required sworn statements from circulators. A state court dismissed the case this week saying the lawsuit should also target the Secretary of State’s Office for approving the measure for the ballot. Life Defense Fund will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
The Biden Administration signs the death warrant for thousands of unborn babies every day because of its commitment to the extreme Big Abortion agenda. Help us deliver a life-saving message: TELL JOE NO and that you want a pro-life America.
Tell Joe: No!
