The Capitol rotunda filled up with supporters hours before the boxes full of petitions arrived. The teeming crowd made up mostly of women brought a pep rally atmosphere, complete with hand-markered signs and inspirational T-shirts.
When a truck finally pulled up, the unsuspecting movers hired for the job got a hero’s welcome. The men had to maneuver dollies towering with boxes through corridors choked with clapping, cheering supporters, plus some equally loud anti-abortion protesters mixed in.
Canvassers convene at the Capitol. 
A pep rally for reproductive rights, with a healthy showing of anti-abortion protesters woven in. 
Movers haul in petitions. 
Arkansans for Limited Government Executive Director Lauren Cowles is greeted by her children when she arrived at the Capitol with the first box of petitions. 
Supporting reproductive rights was a family affair for a lot of people who showed up at the Capitol. 
Supporters stationed themselves on multiple floors. Credit: Brian Chilson 
Law enforcement clears a path for petition delivery. Credit: Brian Chilson 
Cheer teams lurked in every corner. Credit: Brian Chilson 
Dr. Chad Taylor, one of the most outspoken medical professionals pushing for more abortion access, speaks with fellow volunteers. 
Canvassers were still collecting signatures Friday. 
Most of the crowd was made up of women. 
The movers got a grand reception. 
Cheering as boxes are delivered. 
A few anti-abortion activists are woven into the crowd. 
Law enforcement clears aa path. Credit: Brian Chilson 
Professional movers handled the tower of boxes. 
Maneuvering through the throngs. 
A number of families were among the supporters of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment. 
Coming through with 100,000 signatures. 
Gennie Diaz, communication director for Arkansans for Limited Government, explains how the group collected signatures. 
Lots of photo ops as petitions are turned in for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment. 
Leaders of Arkansans for Limited Government, on the left side of the table, talk with staff from the Secretary of State’s office about the process.
The final signature count to put the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the ballot came to 101,525, representing voters in 53 counties, Arkansans for Limited Government Communication Director Gennie Diaz said.
Most of those signatures came courtesy of a volunteer team. Arkansans for Limited Government, the group that formed last year to push back on Arkansas’s near-total abortion ban, trained roughly 700 volunteers. About 325 of them did most of the heavy lifting in the field, although the sleepers shot back into action in recent days, Diaz said.
“On Sunday, we needed 13,000 more signatures to get here, and we did well over that in a matter of days,” she said.
While the effort didn’t get any financial help from national groups like Planned Parenthood — the usual suspects declined to fund the effort because they said the proposed Arkansas Abortion Amendment is still too restrictive — Arkansans for Limited Government pulled in enough donations to hire paid canvassers.
Volunteers can claim credit for more than 82,000 of the signatures, paid canvassers helped get the rest.
Under a new and constitutionally suspect law passed by the Arkansas Legislature in 2023, groups hoping to place amendments on the ballot must collect signatures from at least 50 of Arkansas’s 75 counties.
“Strategically, within the last month, we’ve deployed them to those smaller counties where we needed to check those off the mark,” Diaz said.
Kellie Cobb, the county captain in charge of collecting signatures in Sebastian County, said people from every political persuasion signed her petitions.
Should the proposed amendment make it on the ballot and win, the Arkansas Abortion Amendment will allow abortion access up to 18 weeks after fertilization, and in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly and to preserve the health of the mother. It’s a reasonable amendment that appeals to Arkansans of all stripes, Cobb said. And Arkansans want to have their say on the ban that went in place as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the abortion access that existed for nearly 50 years under Roe v. Wade.
“We never got to vote on this,” Cobb said.
Lots of people in lab coats were at the Capitol Friday too, including Dr. Jill Mhyre, an obstetric anesthesiologist. Part of her job is to help resuscitate pregnant women.
“When pregnancies make women incredibly ill, as they do sometimes, I’m the partner that the obstetricians rely on to get IVs in, to get medicine, to put breathing tubes in and keep people breathing and alive while they do what they need to do to save this woman’s life,” she explained.
Relaxing Arkansas’s near-total abortion ban would prevent unnecessary suffering, she said.
“Part of why we’re here is to preserve our capacity to intervene as moms are getting sick and not when they’re at death’s door.”
Mhyre said there’s a lot of education to be done before November to show voters that preserving abortion rights is a public health issue.
“We just want to take care of women. We want to be able to care for them before they get critically ill. And we don’t want to be afraid for our medical licenses,” she said, referring to the current law that threatens medical professionals with fines and lost privileges if they provide an abortion for any reason other than to save a woman’s life.
Jerry Cox, leader of the anti-abortion Family Council of Arkansas, was one of dozens of anti-abortion activists also packing the halls at the Capitol Friday. Members of the group carried hexagonal signs saying “STOP, Don’t be fooled, Arkansas Abortion Amendment is abortion up to birth.”
Last month the Family Council printed the names and home cities of the paid canvassers for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment.
On Friday, Cox said the Family Council intends to sue, or to support other efforts to sue in an attempt to keep abortion rights off the ballot. He said he wasn’t yet sure on what grounds a lawsuit would be filed, but said challenging misleading language or flaws in the signature-collection process are the usual go-tos.
The supporters of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment who showed up at the Capitol Friday acknowledged the fight was not yet won. The signatures still have to be counted and verified, and it’s possible, maybe even likely, that once duplicate names and people who aren’t registered to vote are weeded out, the group will have to hustle some more to collect additional signatures during the 30-day cure period.
Then there are the potential legal challenges, and ongoing opposition from powerful conservative politicians who love to tout Arkansas as the most pro-life state in the country.
Linda Ragsdale put on her red, white and blue earrings and drove in from Hot Springs Village Friday anyway. She said she knows it’s still very much an uphill battle to restore abortion access in this state. But she collected signatures and wanted to be there to see them delivered, and to celebrate what might come to be.
“Wouldn’t it be amazing,” she said, “if Arkansas was able to pull this off?”