Arkansans for Healthy Eyes, the proponents of Arkansas Act 579 of 2019, which allows optometrists to use lasers and scalpels for certain procedures, filed a lawsuit Friday in the Arkansas Supreme Court.
In the suit, the group alleges that Safe Surgery Arkansas, the group that opposes Act 579 and is behind a rare referendum challenging the new law, didn’t meet requirements of the state’s petition law and, while collecting signatures, fraudulently misled voters on what the law would do.
So their referendum should not appear on the November ballot, Arkansans for Healthy Eyes said Friday.
Both groups were formed in June.
The proponents, optometrists and patients that make up Arkansans for Healthy Eyes, say the new law increases access to eye care and will help the state recruit and retain optometrists.
The opponents, ophthalmologists and other medical doctors that make up Safe Surgery Arkansas, have said patient safety is at stake and have called law a “slippery slope” that could lead to other non-medical doctors performing surgeries.
Alex Gray, attorney for Safe Surgery Arkansas, emailed a statement to Arkansas Business: “Again and again, this group has attempted to dismiss the will of the people who seek the right granted them by the state constitution to place this referendum on the ballot. Voters deserve an opportunity to decide whether nonmedical doctors should be allowed to perform surgery on the eye.
“Safe Surgery Arkansas has followed the law throughout this process. It’s time to stop the pointless and desperate litigation and let Arkansas voters have their say.”
“Our state law governing the petition process is designed to protect voters against fraud,” said Vicki Farmer, chairperson of Arkansans for Healthy Eyes, in a news release. “In this case, not only were those requirements not met, but, in many instances, paid petitioners presented voters with false information about Act 579 in order to induce them to sign the petition.”
Also on Friday, Arkansans for Healthy Eyes filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court a notice of appeal from a January order in Pulaski County Circuit Court. The order denied its request for a temporary restraining order to prevent certification of referendum signatures.
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