On Monday Planned Parenthood and the ACLU asked a federal judge in Little Rock to issue a temporary restraining order against a pro-life law that generally prohibits abortion in Arkansas except in cases when the mother’s life is at risk.
Watch this video to learn more.
On Monday Planned Parenthood and the ACLU asked U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the State of Arkansas from enforcing Act 309 of 2021.
Act 309 generally prohibits abortion in Arkansas except in cases when the mother’s life is in jeopardy. The law passed with overwhelming support from the state legislature earlier this year, and it is slated to take effect July 28.
Last month pro-abortion groups filed a lawsuit against the state over Act 309.
Now those groups want Judge Baker to issue a restraining order that will block the law before it goes into effect next month.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker has consistently ruled in favor of the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. However, the judges above her at the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals have overturned some of her bad rulings in the past.
In light of that, while it seems likely that she will issue a temporary restraining order against Arkansas’ pro-life law, the Eighth Circuit may not agree with her decision once it is appealed.
In the long run, this lawsuit will give federal courts an opportunity to reverse decades of bad case law on abortion — including possibly overturning or Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and other pro-abortion decisions.
That means there is potential for some significant, pro-life victories down the road.
A new Gallup survey shows Americans are evenly split when it comes to whether they consider abortion moral or immoral, but most Americans don’t support abortion on demand.
Gallup found 47% of Americans believe abortion is morally acceptable while 46% said it is morally wrong.
That’s the most support Gallup has ever found for abortion, but statistically, it is still a tie.
The survey also found nearly one out of five (19%) of Americans believes abortion ought to be illegal in all circumstances, and 48% said it should be legal only under certain circumstances.
Taken together, 67% of Americans think abortion ought to be either completely illegal or legal only in certain cases.
Overall, the findings track pretty closely with past surveys by Gallup and other organizations.
In Arkansas, public opinion polling has found that 23% of the state believes abortion ought to be completely illegal, and 84% of likely voters in Arkansas do not support abortion on demand.
Read Gallup’s full article about the survey here.
Photo Credit: By jordanuhl7 [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
