Since the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade, state legislatures around the country have bolstered state funding for pregnancy help organizations that provide women with alternatives to abortion.
For years, pro-life states have provided publicly funded grants and subsidies for pregnancy resource centers that help women with unplanned pregnancies. Those efforts have accelerated in recent months.
In Ohio, lawmakers raised the state’s biannual budget for pregnancy resource centers this year from $6 million to $14 million.
In Tennessee this year, legislators appropriated $20 million for pro-life organizations that provide alternatives to abortion. Florida’s state budget allocates $30 million pregnancy help organizations.
Texas offers $100 million per biennium for its abortion alternatives program.
Kansas — where some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in 2022 — will provide $2 million in funding for pregnancy centers during the coming budget cycle.
This year the Arkansas Legislature voted to provide $1 million in grant funding for pregnancy help organizations that offer women and families alternatives to abortion.
Many of these organizations provide everything from ultrasounds and pregnancy tests to maternity clothes and adoption referrals — typically free of charge. They often operate on very tight budgets and rely heavily on volunteers and donations.
Now that Roe v. Wade has been reversed and Arkansas has prohibited abortion except to save the life of the mother, we need to step up and help women with unplanned pregnancies.
Providing grant funding for pregnancy help organizations is part of our long term strategy to reduce the demand for abortion in Arkansas.
