Health Department Inspects NWA Planned Parenthood Clinic

Abortion, , ,

Last spring the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 383. This good, pro-life law makes it clear abortion clinics must be inspected at least annually and that the Department of Health will shut down an abortion clinic that fails inspection. It also closes a loophole in Arkansas’ informed-consent law regarding abortion.

Despite the fact that Act 383 is a reasonable law, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit attempting to strike it down as unconstitutional. That lawsuit currently is pending in federal court.

Last November the Department of Health inspected a Planned Parenthood clinic in Northwest Arkansas. The department recently sent a letter to the clinic, saying,

On November 15, 2017, the Arkansas Department of Health conducted an inspection of your facility. The findings from this inspection revealed the use of cloth booties which are incapable of being disinfected, to cover the stirrups on the ultrasound exam room table.

It is our understanding this has been corrected. . . . [Y]ou have thirty (30) days from the mailing of this notice to respond with the confirmation or ask for a hearing. If you fail to do so, the license will be suspended. The suspension shall remain in effect until all violations have been corrected . . . .

Infection control is a major concern in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices nationwide. In this case, the inspectors from the Department of Health did their jobs by citing the abortion clinic for using products that could not be disinfected properly.

You can read the Arkansas Department of Health’s entire letter here.

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U.S. Senate Confirms Attorney With Pro-Life Track Record to Federal Court

Abortion, Judicial Confirmations, , , ,

Yesterday the U.S. Senate confirmed judicial nominee Steve Grasz.

Mr. Grasz is a Nebraska attorney President Trump nominated to fill a vacancy on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals last August.

In November, a committee from the American Bar Association labeled Mr. Grasz unqualified to serve as a judge because of his pro-life work as an attorney.

The American Bar Association committee cited Mr. Grasz’s “pro-life agenda,” saying his personal convictions “created a lack of objectivity” and that Mr. Grasz’s “passionately-held social agenda appeared to overwhelm and obscure the ability to exercise dispassionate and unbiased judgment.”

No one should be barred from public service for being pro-life. While it is impossible to know for sure, Mr. Grasz’s track record working for the Nebraska Attorney General’s office leads us to believe he will make an excellent federal judge.

During his time with the A.G.’s office, Mr. Grasz helped defend Nebraska’s pro-life law banning partial-birth abortions before the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the court ultimately struck down the law in Stenberg v. Carhart, the ruling paved the way for a federal law banning partial-birth abortion; that law was upheld in Gonzalez v. Carhart.

In 1999 Mr. Grasz helped file an amicus brief in support of Texas public schools after a lower court ruled student-led prayer at public school sporting events was unconstitutional.

As a justice in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Mr. Grasz will help preside over cases affecting Arkansas — including, possibly, some of Arkansas’ pro-life cases that are currently pending in federal court.

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AR Lottery Gave Less Than 19 Cents of Every Dollar to Scholarships in November

Arkansas Lottery

According to monthly reports the Arkansas Lottery released yesterday, the Lottery made nearly $36.2 million in November, but paid less than $6.7 million to scholarships — about 18.5 cents of every every dollar.

Since the Arkansas Lottery’s fiscal year began in July, roughly 17.5% of the Arkansas Lottery’s revenue has gone to scholarships. For perspective, the average state lottery budgets approximately 30%.

By our estimate, the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay out about $85 million in scholarship funding in Fiscal Year 2018 — well below the $100 million Lottery proponents said Arkansans would receive every year.

According to the report, the Arkansas Lottery began offering 4 new scratch-off lottery tickets in November:

  • A $1 ticket called Holiday Cheer
  • A $2 ticket called Lucky Numbers
  • A $5 ticket called Bonus 7
  • A $10 ticket called Cash Diamonds

Like the Big Money Multiplier ticket the Lottery unveiled in September, Cash Diamonds  is an oversize scratch-off ticket that sells for $10 instead of the typical $1 or $2. The overall odds of winning a prize — such as a $10 break-even prize — are 1 in 2.89, but the odds of winning the jackpot prize are 1 in 320,000.

This is the same gimmick the Lottery has used since Day One: Roll out as much gambling as possible as quickly as possible in order to bolster ticket sales.

In this case, the Lottery is selling scratch-off tickets that are more expensive than most and offer larger prizes, but the odds are long, and in the end the results will be the same: Arkansans will spend — and lose — millions of dollars buying lottery tickets.

As we have written before, many people gamble out of desperation, and the Arkansas Lottery preys on those people with tickets like this one.

Below is a breakdown of Lottery revenue and scholarship funding so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $ 36,885,396.81 $ 6,661,762.99 18.1%
August 49,320,459.23 8,912,741.54 18.1%
September 36,405,731.14 6,755,333.93 18.6%
October 39,802,740.53 5,667,305.74 14.2%
November 36,186,107.78 6,691,228.00 18.5%
Total $ 198,600,435.49 $ 34,688,372.20 17.5%

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