Pro-Life – Family Council

Governor Outlines Maternal Health Plan

Mar 12, 2024Jerry CoxPro-LifeLife, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Last week Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement and signed an executive order outlining a step-by-step plan for improving maternal health in Arkansas.

The plan includes expanded maternal healthcare access in Arkansas, increasing the percentage of women who access prenatal care, and creating a pilot program for improving maternal health in under-served counties.

It’s worth noting that Arkansas provides grant funding to pregnancy health organizations that help fulfill some of the governor’s maternal wellness goals.

As we have written before, many pregnancy resource centers provide everything from ultrasounds and pregnancy tests to prenatal and postnatal resources, medical referrals, and more — typically free of charge.

Last year Gov. Sanders signed Act 622 authorizing $1 million in state-funded grants for pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services agencies that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

To date the state has awarded nearly $500,000 to more than two dozen different pregnancy resource centers. The rest of the $1 million in grant funding is expected to be distributed between now and June 30.

Family Council was pleased to support passage of Act 622 last year, and we plan to work for passage of another appropriation measure at the Arkansas Legislature next month.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

State Could Begin Accepting Grant Applications from Pregnancy Centers Next Month

Sep 18, 2023Jerry CoxAbortion, Pro-LifeAbortion, Life, Pregnancy Resource Centers, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration recently announced it expects applications for the 2023 Pregnancy Help Organizations Grant Program to open next month.

In April, Gov. Sanders signed Act 622 of 2023 authorizing $1 million in state-funded grants for crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services agencies that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

Under Act 622, the Department of Finance and Administration distributes this grant funding to eligible organizations that provide women and families with alternatives to abortion. In a recent announcement, the agency wrote,

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) will be seeking applications for funding from organizations eligible to apply under the Pregnancy Help Organizations (PHOs) Grant Program. This grant program was established for the purpose of encouraging females facing unwanted pregnancy to give birth to their unborn child. DFA is the designated state entity to administer the PHO Grant Program in accordance with Act 622 of 2023. Pregnancy Resource Center Grant | Department of Finance and Administration (Arkansas.gov).

Once preliminary procedures are completed in accordance with state law, DFA will open the Request for Applications.

The anticipated opening date is mid October. Announcements will be posted on our website at the link above.

Since the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade, state legislatures around the country have ramped up state funding for pregnancy help organizations.

For example, Ohio recently raised its state budget for pregnancy resource centers to $14 million per biennium.

In Tennessee, legislators appropriated $20 million for pro-life organizations that provide alternatives to abortion. Florida’s state budget allocates $30 million pregnancy help organizations.

The Texas Legislature budgets $50 million per year to its abortion alternatives program.

And Kansas — where some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in 2022 — will provide $2 million to pregnancy centers in the coming months.

In June the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration finished awarding $1 million in grant funds to pregnancy help organizations as part of the 2022-2023 budget cycle. Now the state is preparing to award another million dollars by June 30, 2024. This grant funding will support women with unplanned pregnancies and help build a culture of life in Arkansas. That’s something to celebrate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

The “Face of Assisted Death in Canada”

Mar 6, 2023John StonestreetEuthanasia and Assisted Suicide, Pro-LifeAssisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Since so-called Medical Aid in Dying was legalized in Canada, those with severe medical conditions have been increasingly in danger. Care is becoming harder to find, while the option to die is quick, cheap, and always available.

One woman recently told her story on Twitter,

I am the face of [assisted-death] in Canada. As a 42-year-old woman with a rare complication of lupus [and] iatrogenic injuries, I will only cost the “system”.  I want to live but can’t get the care I need [and] have been approved for MAiD.

This is what opponents of MAiD warned of all along. The so-called “right” to die with dignity quickly becomes a “duty” to die, as vulnerable people are crushed beneath economic, social, and medical pressures. 

In fact, according to demographer Lyman Stone, “Canada euthanized more people last month than the sum total of every Canadian wartime casualty since 1946.” Increasingly, those most at risk are losing the ability to choose.