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(Arkansas News Service) Now that the Arkansas Supreme Court has denied a petition to put an abortion rights measure on the November ballot, proponents for women's reproductive rights say they are not giving up.

The case was sent to the high court after the Arkansas Secretary of State rejected the petition because members of Arkansans for Limited Government didn't submit required paperwork for paid workers who gathered signatures.

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The group's communications director - Gennie Diaz - said they want to give Arkansans the right to choose, but legislators keep changing the rules.

"The constitution of Arkansas says that you need to gather signatures from 15 Arkansas counties out of the 75," said Diaz. "The legislature last session passed a law saying that they're bumping it up to 50, which is an extreme jump."

Under Arkansas' current law, abortions can only be performed if the mother's life is in danger.

The proposed amendment would have allowed abortion care up to 18 weeks after fertilization - and in cases of rape, incest, threats to the mother's life, or if it was believed the fetus wouldn't survive.

About 14,000 of the petition's signatures were collected by paid canvassers, but the secretary of state says those names couldn't be counted because of the missing paperwork.

Without those signatures the group didn't have the 90,000 names needed to have the issue placed on the ballot.

Diaz said proponents of a woman's right to choose can make their voices heard by voting.

"From city council, all the way to the state legislators and constitutional offices," said Diaz, "ask them their opinion on this petition, and if it was something you supported. I think that that should definitely weigh into what people decide at the ballot box. "

The measure faced heavy opposition from abortion opponents in the state.

The nonprofit Family Council Action Committee had vowed to challenge the proposed constitutional amendment in court if it made it onto the ballot.

Following the ruling, GOP Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted on the social media platform X that the far-left pro-abortion crowd in Arkansas showed they are both immoral and incompetent.