On Thursday the House Public Health Committee passed two good, pro-life bills.
The first was S.B. 463. This good bill by Sen. Blake Johnson (R – Corning) and Rep. Tony Furman (R – Benton) requires the State of Arkansas to report abortion data to the federal Centers for Disease Control.
It also tightens Arkansas law concerning abortion facility inspections, and it requires abortionists to file certain documentation when the woman is a victim of rape or incest.
The second was S.B. 527. This good bill by Sen. Ben Gilmore (R – Crossett) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) requires abortion facilities to have transfer agreements with hospitals, and it fixes a flawed definition in a pro-life law passed in 2019.
Both bills passed with solid support from pro-life legislators.
Planned Parenthood has issued statements opposing each of these good measures.
S.B. 527 and S.B. 463 now go to the entire Arkansas House of Representatives for consideration.
On Wednesday Sen. Greg Leding (D – Fayetteville) and Rep. Megan Godfrey (D – Springdale) filed S.B. 655.
This bad bill implements comprehensive sex-education in public schools in Arkansas. Comprehensive sex-education generally promotes contraceptives over and above abstinence.
We know from experience that these programs aren’t effective at preventing teen pregnancy and teen abortion.
In the 1980s and 1990s liberals in Arkansas promoted sex-education programs like the ones that S.B. 655 would implement.
From 1991 to 1997 Arkansas’ teen birthrate decreased by 11% and Arkansas teen abortion rate decreased by 18%.
In 1997 the Arkansas Legislature and the Huckabee Administration began promoting abstinence education in Arkansas.
From 1997 to 2005, Arkansas’ teen birthrate decreased 17%, but Arkansas’ teen abortion rate plummeted a staggering 48%.
Governor Huckabee’s abstinence education model was so successful in Arkansas that it drew national recognition.
In 2016 — while President Barack Obama was still in office — the federal Centers for Disease Control released a 208-page report concluding teenagers who practice abstinence are healthier in nearly every way than teenagers who are sexually active.
The CDC’s report looked at everything from seatbelt and bike helmet use to substance abuse, diet, exercise, and even tanning bed use.
Their conclusion was that sexually-active teens were less healthy and engaged in riskier behavior.
Unfortunately, legislation like S.B. 655 encourages teenagers to be sexually-active — which is linked to other unhealthy decisions.
Simply put, if the state is serious about promoting teen health and decreasing abortion and teen birthrates, then history and data both prove that abstinence education is the right way to go.
Below is a table showing teen birthrate and teen abortion rate numbers for Arkansas from 1990 – 2017, the most recent year for which we have calculated figures on abortion rates in Arkansas.
On Wednesday the Arkansas Senate passed S.B. 388 by a vote of 28 to six.
This good bill by Sen. Charles Beckham (R – McNeil) and Rep. Joe Cloud (R – Russellville) requires any facility that performs abortions to be licensed by the Arkansas Department of Health as an abortion facility.
S.B. 388 also prohibits abortions in hospitals except in cases of medical emergency.
Under current law, clinics are not required to be licensed or inspected as abortion facilities unless they perform more than ten abortions in a month.
This means that a clinic potentially could perform more than 100 abortions per year without being licensed or inspected as an abortion facility.
S.B. 388 addresses this problem in state law.
This bill will make it easier for the Arkansas Department of Health to enforce existing pro-life laws that restrict abortion at abortion facilities.
S.B. 388 will ensure that every clinic that performs abortions is licensed and inspected, and that Arkansas’ laws against abortion are properly followed.
The bill now goes to the Arkansas House for consideration.
