Three Years Without Roe: How Arkansas Is Protecting Life

Abortion, , ,

Tuesday marks three years since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision.

Thanks to that ruling, abortion in Arkansas is generally prohibited except to save the life of the mother.

Arkansans also have proven time and again that they are deeply pro-life, and lawmakers have rejected efforts to legalize abortion.

The state legislature has passed good measures this year that further clarify those pro-life laws.

And Arkansas has given millions of dollars to help support women with unplanned pregnancies and promote maternal wellness.

One question that remains unanswered is how many women from Arkansas are traveling out-of-state for abortions, and how many are ordering dangerous abortion pills online. Nobody knows for sure, but the data paints a mixed picture.

The CDC’s most recent abortion numbers are from 2022, and they show some Arkansans traveling to Kansas, Illinois, and other states for abortion. But Roe v. Wade wasn’t overturned until mid-2022 — so those numbers aren’t complete.

The Journal of the American Medical Association conservatively estimates more than 300 children were born in Arkansas in 2023 as a direct result of the state’s pro-life laws. That means Arkansas’ pro-life laws are certainly saving lives.

However, the State of Kansas reports 728 women from Arkansas had abortions in Kansas during 2023. That’s an increase from previous years.

And anecdotally, pregnancy resource center directors have told us stories of young women coming to them after ordering abortion pills online.

Based on the numbers that are available, it seems safe to say that far fewer abortions are being performed on women from Arkansas now than three years ago, but at this time there is no way to know exactly how many.

All of this underscores that while Arkansas’ pro-life laws are doing a lot of good, we need to work hard to make abortion unthinkable as well.

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


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Family Council Backs NY Mom Suing School for Hiding Daughter’s Gender Transition

Transgender,

Last week, Family Council joined dozens of other pro-family organizations from across the country in an amicus brief supporting parental rights.

The case centers on a New York school district that treated a middle-school girl as if she were a boy without her mother’s knowledge or consent. The girl’s mother, Jennifer Vitsaxaki, sued the school district after learning her daughter was secretly “socially transitioned” at school.

The lawsuit alleges,

Not one School District employee notified Mrs. Vitsaxaki or sought her consent before socially transitioning her daughter. Worse, although those employees knew about the School District’s actions, they told Mrs. Vitsaxaki nothing. School staff carefully used Jane’s given name and female pronouns when speaking with Mrs. Vitsaxaki, and they repeatedly said everything was fine, all the while treating [her daughter] as a boy and sending her resources for medical transition behind Mrs. Vitsaxaki’s back.

The amicus brief we joined last week argues that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing and care of their children. In this case, the school violated that fundamental right.

Over the years, we have seen pro-LGBT activists use public schools to promote transgender ideology to kids in many different ways. Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom have recently spoken out about how schools are hiding important information about students from their parents. But policymakers are pushing back.

Arkansas has enacted laws to help prevent schools from socially transitioning children or promoting radical pro-LGBT ideology in the classroom, but federal lawsuits like this one could affect schools nationwide. That’s why it’s important for us to stand up for parental rights in this case.

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

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Arkansas Urges Court to Uphold SAFE Act Following Supreme Court Ruling

Transgender, ,

On Thursday, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office made a filing with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in defense of the state’s law protecting children from sex-change procedures.

In 2021, Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act prohibiting doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Unfortunately, a federal judge blocked the law, and the SAFE Act is currently before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

However, on Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law protecting children from these same procedures, drugs, and hormones. That good ruling should pave the way for federal courts to let Arkansas enforce the SAFE Act as well.

On Thursday, Arkansas Solicitor General Autumn Hamit Patterson filed a letter with the Eighth Circuit informing the judges about the new court decision. The letter says the supreme court’s ruling reinforces the A.G.’s arguments that Arkansas’ SAFE Act is constitutional.

The letter notes that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tennessee’s law did not discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity, and it argues that the SAFE Act should be upheld, in light of the ruling.

Sex-change procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones can leave children permanently scarred, sterilized, and at risk of serious health conditions.

Last fall, medical experts at the organization Do No Harm released a report showing that from 2019 to 2023, dozens of children in Arkansas underwent sex-change surgeries or were prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Doctors do not know the long-term effects that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones might have on people. However, files leaked from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) organization make it clear that medical professionals performing gender-transitions on kids have been fully aware that these procedures can lead to lasting regret and complications — some of which may even be life-threatening.

Since 2021, a major hospital in Sweden has announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids, the U.K. has adopted policies that protect children from puberty blockers, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has added a warning label to puberty blockers after discovering they caused some biological girls to experience swelling in the brain.

In a comprehensive study published last year, Finnish researchers found transgender surgeries did not appear to resolve the underlying emotional and mental issues that youth with gender dysphoria faced.

And gender clinics have been shown to rush children and families through the transition process without adequate informed-consent and mental health screenings.

Arkansas — and other states — need to be able to protect children from these procedures.

It’s great to see Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office urging the Eighth Circuit to let the state enforce the SAFE Act.

Arkansas’ SAFE Act is a good law that protects children.

We believe the Eighth Circuit will recognize that fact and let the state enforce this good law.

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

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