House Public Health Votes Against Good Pro-Life Legislation

Yesterday, the Arkansas House Public Health Committee voted down a bill that would have prohibited abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy.

HB1887, also known as the “fetal pain” bill strongly supported by Arkansas Right to Life, by Rep. Mayberry would have prevented unborn children from being aborted after the 20th week of pregnancy, except to save the life of the mother or prevent irreparable physical harm.

By the 20th week, an unborn child can feel pain—and abortion is believed by many experts to be an excruciatingly painful process for the child. This bill would have prevented the unnecessary and cruel killing of these unborn children, but it was stopped by the House Public Health Committee.

The bill received 9 votes. If it had received just 2 more, it would have passed. Below is a breakdown of the vote. Please call those committee members who did not vote or voted against the bill, and ask them to support the remaining pro-life bills pending before their committee. And don’t forget you can talk to these committee members in person if you join us at the Capitol on Tuesday morning for an emergency Pro-Life Day at the Capitol.

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New Amendment Could Increase Lottery Scholarships

Representative Ann Clemmer has filed a constitutional amendment to require the Arkansas Lottery to allocate 35% of its revenue for college scholarships.

Right now Arkansas law does not require any kind of minimum percentage of lottery revenue be set aside for scholarships.  As a result, the percentage allocated has been set incredibly low—approximately 22%, one of the lowest in the nation.

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