Amendment Would Open Arkansas to Dangerous, Unrestricted Abortion Drugs

This article is part of an ongoing series tracking the Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024 and examining its possible effects on state law.

A constitutional amendment vying for the 2024 ballot in Arkansas would jeopardize a number of state health and safety restrictions on dangerous abortion drugs.

Arkansans for Limited Government is collecting more than 90,000 petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the November ballot.

If passed, the amendment would write abortion into the state constitution — allowing thousands of elective abortions in Arkansas every year — and it would prevent the Arkansas Legislature from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy.

Writing abortion into the state constitution could pave the way for taxpayer-funded abortions in Arkansas — something voters have opposed in the past.

The amendment also contains sweeping health exceptions for abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy — even when a viable child could be delivered instead of aborted — and it nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment. That jeopardizes basic restrictions like parental consent and informed consent requirements for abortion as well as medical licensing standards for abortionists.

Preventing the Arkansas Legislature from prohibiting or restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy likely would nullify Arkansas’ health and safety laws for abortion drugs like the RU-486 regimen.

Chemical abortion drugs carry a number of risks and consequences. That’s part of the reason why state law contains health and safety restrictions for them.

For example:

• Act 139 and Act 1014 of 2015 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R – Mountain View) and Rep. Julie Mayberry (R – Hensley) prevent abortionists from prescribing abortion-inducing drugs like RU-486 remotely via telemedicine.
• Act 560 of 2021 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R – Springdale) and Sen. Scott Flippo (R – Mountain Home) contains an informed-consent process for chemical abortions. This helps ensure women get all the facts about chemical abortion — including its risks, its consequences, and its alternatives.
• Act 562 of 2021 by Rep. Sonia Barker (R – Smackover) and Sen. Blake Johnson (R – Corning) updates Arkansas’ restrictions on abortion-inducing drugs like RU-486. Among other things, the law outlines requirements that abortionists must follow in administering abortion-inducing drugs. It also prohibits abortion drugs from being delivered by mail in Arkansas.

Abortion-inducing drugs are dangerous. Official reports from the Arkansas Department of Health reveal that between 2020 and 2022 at least 1 in 50 women who took abortion drugs in Arkansas experienced complications.

Despite the serious health risk, some pro-abortion groups encourage women to order abortion pills online and have the abortion drugs shipped to them without talking to a doctor. That’s why state laws like Act 562 prohibit abortion drugs from being delivered by mail in Arkansas.

The Arkansas Abortion Amendment threatens to nullify all of these common sense health and safety laws that restrict abortion drugs.

Without these laws, Arkansas could see an inflow of dangerous, unrestricted abortion drugs throughout the state.

You can download a copy of the amendment here.

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