Arkansas A.G. Will Ask Higher Court to Let the State Prohibit Abortions

Abortion, , ,
March for Life 2015, Washington D.C.

On Thursday Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office appealed to the Eighth Circuit in a lawsuit over whether or not the state can prohibit abortions.

Act 309 of 2021 generally prohibits abortion in Arkansas except in cases when the mother’s life is in jeopardy. It is a good law that passed with overwhelming support from the state legislature earlier this year, and it was slated to take effect on July 28.

However, the ACLU filed a lawsuit over Act 309, and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker blocked the law just days before it was set to take effect.

Now the attorney general is going to ask the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to unblock the law.

A schedule produced by the Eighth Circuit indicates that the court will accept briefings in the case from the A.G.’s team and the ACLU throughout late September, October, and a good portion of November.

At this time we do not know when the court might issue a decision in the case.

Last June the A.G.’s team argued that pro-abortion rulings like Planned Parenthood v. Casey need to be reevaluated and overturned — and that the U.S. Supreme Court is liable to do that in its upcoming Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case out of Mississippi.

The A.G. also argued that past pro-abortion decisions like Roe v. Wade “were wrongly decided” and that “there is no doubt that the fetus is a human life — not mere tissue, not ‘potential life,’ and not ‘the product of conception.'”

The attorney general’s decision to appeal this lawsuit will give our federal courts an opportunity to reverse decades of bad case law on abortion.

That means there is potential for some landmark, pro-life victories down the road. Those victories could help stop abortion in Arkansas and elsewhere across the nation.

Photo Credit: American Life League, CC BY-NC 2.0, via Flickr.com. No changes were made to the image.

READ MORE

Jonesboro Library Fails to Respect Parental Rights, Child Welfare with Pro-LGBT Display

LGBT,
A page from one of the many pro-LGBT books the Jonesboro Public Library reportedly placed on display in its children’s library in June.

In June the Jonesboro Public Library made headlines after placing a large selection of pro-LGBT material in its children’s library area.

The books included titles like The GayBCs and My Two Moms. The library also displayed a pro-LGBT flyer about the gay pride flag.

One mother noted that the picture books showed very young children identifying with different sexual-orientations. The publishers’ age range for these books reportedly was as young as four years old.

In August the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library Board met to discuss the display.

Proposals reportedly were offered to move pro-LGBT material to a different part of the library — away from the children’s area — and to give the library board oversight when it comes to special displays. However, those good proposals failed to pass.

One of the flyers reportedly displayed in the Jonesboro Public Library.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time children have been targeted with pro-LGBT material.

For example, in June popular children’s cartoon “Blue’s Clues” released a video of an animated gay pride parade on YouTube.

And around the country different libraries have hosted “Drag Queen Story Times” geared toward children. These events are not about getting children to read or play together. They’re about promoting homosexual and transgender ideology to little kids.

There are several problems with pro-LGBT displays like the one in Jonesboro’s children’s library, but here are two key issues:

First, the display fails to respect parental rights.

Parents have a right to talk to their children about sex and gender. By placing this sort of material front-and-center where children can’t help seeing it as they walk into the library, the library is interfering with a conversation that parents ought to be able to have with their children.

Second, the material fails to respect child welfare.

As one Jonesboro mother noted, it’s simply inappropriate to encourage young children to question their gender-identity or to consider same-sex attraction. These books should not be sitting out where a child could easily grab them off a shelf without a parent realizing it.

Families should be able to walk into a public library without worrying about the books that might be on display in the children’s area. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case in Jonesboro and in many of our other libraries.

READ MORE

Pro-Lifers Mobilize to Oppose Planned Parenthood in Rogers

Abortion, Planned Parenthood, ,
Above: A pro-life, mobile pregnancy resource unit sits next door to a facility Planned Parenthood recently acquired in Rogers. Mobile units like this one give women options besides abortion.

Recently Family Council reported that Planned Parenthood has worked to acquire a facility in Rogers that could be used to perform abortions.

It is unknown at this time when Planned Parenthood might start using the new facility.

Since then, pro-lifers in Northwest Arkansas have begun mobilizing to oppose Planned Parenthood and its pro-abortion agenda.

On Monday pro-lifers in Northwest Arkansas sent Family Council photographs of a mobile pregnancy resource unit parked next door to Planned Parenthood’s new facility.

The mobile unit offers free ultrasounds and other resources that help women choose options besides abortion.

Loving Choices Pregnancy Centers operates the mobile unit and reports on its website that the unit will be located near Planned Parenthood every Thursday.

Our team also has spoken with pro-lifers who are preparing to pray outside the new Planned Parenthood facility in the coming weeks.

Above: The Loving Choices Pregnancy Centers’ mobile unit. In the background is a clinical facility Planned Parenthood recently acquired in Rogers.

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider. The organization currently operates a chemical abortion facility in Little Rock. It previously operated an abortion facility in Northwest Arkansas until the summer of 2019.

The group’s political action committee has been active in recent legislative races.

Prior to 2015, Planned Parenthood received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State of Arkansas via Medicaid.

And Planned Parenthood currently is working with the ACLU to block Arkansas from enforcing pro-life legislation that passed earlier this year.

If you would like to be part of the effort to oppose abortion in Northwest Arkansas, contact the Northwest Arkansas Respect Life Council at nwarespectlifecouncil@gmail.com.

READ MORE