How a rightwing machine stopped Arkansas’s ballot to roll back one of the strictest abortion bans
How a rightwing machine stopped Arkansas’s ballot to roll back one of the strictest abortion bans
How a rightwing machine stopped Arkansas’s ballot initiative to roll back one of the strictest abortion bans
A Guardian investigation into the ballot’s demise reveals a confluence of rightwing actors working in parallel to ensure the measure was blocked before it ever reached voters
A doctor who had confirmed the diagnosis was apologetic but insistent: the state’s laws meant he could be fined or jailed if he performed an abortion. In the wake of the US supreme court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, Arkansas activated a so-called trigger law that made all abortion illegal except if a woman was in an acute medical emergency and facing death. There are no other exceptions: not for rape victims, minors or fatal fetal anomalies.