As the year draws to a close, I want to invite you to take a moment to celebrate just a few of Family Council’s greatest accomplishments from 2023 with me.
Funding Pregnancy Resource Centers: This year we secured $1 million to fund a grant program for pro-life pregnancy help organizations. We need to eliminate the demand for abortion, and these publicly-funded grants are an excellent way the State of Arkansas can do exactly that.
Defending Homeschool Freedoms: Home schooling may be the most potent weapon against the cultural decay and immorality that afflicts our society. As a division of Family Council, the Education Alliance goes to the State Capitol and fights for homeschool rights and for the passage of new laws that help homeschoolers. In addition, we work with the Arkansas Department of Education to be certain that homeschool rights are respected. This year we were able to help stop multiple legislative proposals that could have hurt homeschoolers—such as state-mandated testing requirements—and we worked with our friends in the legislature to ensure the LEARNS Act will provide valuable school choice opportunities to homeschoolers.
Eliminating Exemptions for Public Libraries in the State’s Obscenity Statute: A bill by Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Gonzalez revealed a lot about some librarians. Until this year, state law let librarians promote obscene material. When Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Gonzalez tried to make librarians subject to the same law that applies to the rest of us, the librarians alleged it was “book banning.” The bill passed, and Arkansas law now prohibits public libraries from sharing obscene material.
Carrying Out Our Three-Pronged Strategy for Making Abortion Irrelevant Now That Roe v. Wade is Reversed: When the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, Family Council unveiled a three-pronged strategy for protecting unborn children in Arkansas: Encourage the enforcement of our pro-life laws, work with our friends to pass any new pro-life laws necessary to end abortion, and expand our efforts to assist pro-life pregnancy help organizations across Arkansas. This year we were able to fulfill all three of those goals.
Defending Religious Freedom: Arkansas now has the nation’s best religious freedom law—Act 733 of 2023, the Conscience Protection Act. This good law protects religious liberty and bans government discrimination against religious people or organizations. Act 733 helps safeguard the ability of religious people and religious organizations to operate according to their deeply held convictions.
Blocking Pro-Abortion Legislation: As predicted, pro-abortion lawmakers attacked our good pro-life laws. They introduced a constitutional amendment that would have repealed our pro-life Amendment 68 and made abortion a state constitutional right. They also attempted to pass laws allowing abortions for health reasons and in cases of incest. We joined Arkansas Right to Life in opposing these bad laws, and all of them were defeated.
Empowering People to Make a Big Difference Through Our Rapid Response Network: In 2019 we formed the Family Council Rapid Response Team, a network of over 400 people in every area of Arkansas. When we ask them to call their lawmakers about legislation, they call. When we activate them on some local issue in their city or county, they step up and make their voices heard. We worked to grow our Rapid Response Network this year, and we empowered each of them to make their voices heard at the capitol during the 2023 legislative session.
Your friendship, your prayers, your kind words, and your financial support have enabled us to do so much. If you have completed your charitable giving for 2023, thank you. If you are still making donations between now and Sunday, I hope you will consider supporting the work we do at Family Council. Click here to give securely today.
