Legal Group Warns Abortion Amendment Would Create “Constitutional Crisis in Arkansas,” Turn the State into an “Abortion Destination”

*Above: Pro-life volunteers hold signs explaining the Arkansas Abortion Amendment is more extreme than* Roe v. Wade.

Legal experts specializing in abortion policy say the Arkansas Abortion Amendment could create a “constitutional crisis in Arkansas” and turn the state into an “abortion destination” in America.

The amendment touted by Arkansans for Limited Government would write abortion into the state constitution. The group hired more than 150 petition canvassers in support of the amendment, and submitted some 101,525 signatures to place the measure on the ballot on Friday.

On Monday, Family Council obtained a legal analysis of the abortion measure from Americans United for Life.

The analysis identified multiple problems with the amendment, including how the abortion amendment would:

Give abortionists “free rein to operate without any health and safety restrictions.”
Authorize abortion on demand during the first five months of pregnancy.
Lead to the elimination of protections for women, minor girls, and unborn children.
Turn Arkansas into an “abortion destination” in America.

The analysis says,

Arkansas is currently the safest state in the nation for children in the womb. The Amendment would place Arkansas in the company of such nations as China, North Korea, and a handful of other nations who do not protect life at or prior to three months. . . .

The Amendment authorizes abortion-on-demand through five months of pregnancy (and through nine months in some cases), threatens to eliminate protections for women’s welfare and parental involvement laws, gives abortionists free rein to operate clinics without health and safety regulations, increases the number of coerced abortions in Arkansas, furthers the harmful and false narrative that abortion is necessary for women to have equality and success in America, and attempts to silence the voices of women harmed by abortion. The Amendment allows abortion activists to turn the life-affirming state of Arkansas into an abortion destination that endangers the health and safety of its residents both inside and outside the womb.

Americans United for Life is a nationwide legal organization whose mission is to “advance the human right to life in culture, law, and policy.”

You can download the legal analysis here.