Circuit Court Won’t Decide Arkansas’ Abortion Ban Until After SCOTUS Rules on Mississippi Law
Earlier this month the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals quietly announced it would wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before considering the lawsuit over Arkansas’ new law that generally prevents abortion.
Act 309 of 2021 by Sen. Jason Rapert (R – Conway) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) prohibits abortion in Arkansas, except in cases when the mother’s life is in jeopardy. If enforced, this good law would save thousands of unborn children from abortion every year.
Act 309 was slated to take effect on July 28. However, the ACLU filed a lawsuit over Act 309, and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker blocked the law just days before it was set to take effect.
In August, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge appealed Judge Baker’s decision to the Eighth Circuit.
However, earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
That case deals with a law Mississippi passed in 2018 generally prohibiting abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. Last May the ACLU dubbed Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health the “case that could decimate the constitutional right to abortion.”
In light of the fact that the court’s ruling on Mississippi’s pro-life law could affect pro-life legislation everywhere — including Arkansas — the Eighth Circuit has opted not to do anything with Arkansas’ Act 309 until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision.
Regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Mississippi’s case, Arkansas has an opportunity to see decades of bad abortion rulings overturned or reinterpreted in a pro-life way.
Arkansas and other states have passed a record-setting number of pro-life laws this year.
Most of those laws have gone unchallenged, and they are saving the lives of unborn children in Arkansas right now.
Slowly but surely we are winning the fight against abortion.
