Drug Overdose Rose Dramatically In Arkansas: CDC Report

Current Events, Drugs,

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control shows drug overdose deaths have risen dramatically in Arkansas.

The CDC report analyzed drug overdose deaths across the country from May of 2020 through April of 2021.

Overall, drug overdose fatalities rose approximately 29% nationwide, but they increased a drastic 33% in Arkansas during that time.

Among other things, the CDC’s report found overdose deaths increased due to fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and natural and semi-synthetic opioids such as prescription pain medication.

Writing at Breakpoint.org, John Stonestreet and Maria Baer note,

Drug overdose was the eighth leading cause of death in the United States last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. From May 2020 to April 2021, an estimated 100,300 Americans died from an overdose. That’s a roughly 30 percent increase over the year before, and officials believe this year could be even worse.  

Experts point to a few things to explain the deadly spike, including the flooding of the drug market by the extremely potent and dangerous synthetic opioid Fentanyl.

But the pandemic lockdowns share the blame. Not only was the social isolation harmful to the mental health of many, but the lockdowns and the often illogical restrictions on medical care hindered addiction treatment. 

The drug epidemic isn’t fun to debate on Twitter. It’s not just another political football. It is an emergency. The Church has to step in here, and quickly — not just to help our neighbors who might be struggling, but to advocate on their behalf to our leaders. This is the pandemic that’s not waning. We have to pay attention.

Copyright 2021 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

We couldn’t agree more.

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Conway Regional Hospital Faces Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

COVID-19,

Conway Regional Hospital faces a lawsuit over its vaccine mandates for employers and its failure to grant certain religious exemptions from the mandate.

The lawsuit names six individuals who are past or present employees of Conway Regional. According to the lawsuit, all six of the plaintiffs are Christians who have religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit alleges that Conway Regional is requiring employees to provide unreasonable information in order to obtain a religious exemption from the hospital’s vaccine requirement.

Above: The religious exemption attestation form that Conway Regional Health System rolled out in September.

Some pro-lifers around the country have objected to the COVID-19 vaccines, because cells originating from aborted fetal tissue were used in the vaccines’ research and development.

In September Conway Regional made headlines after the hospital announced that employees who wanted a religious exemption because of the vaccine’s connection to abortion would also have to sign a form attesting that the employees would not use other medicines — such as Tylenol and Tums — that have been tested on aborted fetal tissue.

The lawsuit against Conway Regional alleges,

Conway Regional is discriminating against certain Christian employees by segregating vaccinated employees and providing them with better terms and conditions of employment and stigmatizing certain Christian employees, including these Plaintiffs, who object to the COVID-19 vaccine and have sought a religious exemption. . . .

Conway Regional has failed to accommodate Plaintiffs by not granting them a religious exemption from the requirement to take the COVID-19 vaccine and/or failing to accommodate them by making unreasonable requests to provide information relating to the Plaintiffs’ religious beliefs.

The State of Arkansas has joined multiple lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s federal vaccine mandates, and in September the Arkansas Legislature passed two identical measures requiring employers to provide certain accommodations for employees who decline to get vaccinated.

Family Council has a long history of working on exemptions from vaccine mandates in Arkansas. We don’t oppose immunizations, but we do believe people’s rights of conscience ought to be respected when it comes to getting a vaccine. State law should protect people from being forced to violate their conscience.

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Planned Parenthood Hopes to Perform Chemical Abortions in Rogers By Early Spring

Abortion, Planned Parenthood, , , ,
Above: Planned Parenthood’s new facility in Rogers.

On Wednesday Planned Parenthood Great Plains, the regional affiliate for Planned Parenthood in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas, announced it intends to begin performing chemical abortions using the RU-486 abortion drugs at its new facility in Rogers, Arkansas, by sometime in the early spring of 2022.

Family Council President Jerry Cox issued a statement saying, “Today’s announcement isn’t surprising. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider, and the group has said since 2019 that it wants to open an abortion center in Northwest Arkansas. Planned Parenthood worked through a separate LLC to secretly acquire a facility in Rogers. That center opened for business in September. Planned Parenthood officials had originally said they wanted to begin performing abortions in Rogers by the end of this year. Now it seems they have delayed until the spring of next year.”

Cox said the community in Northwest Arkansas clearly opposes Planned Parenthood’s agenda. “Since August we’ve seen hundreds of pro-lifers from Northwest Arkansas gather to peacefully oppose abortion outside Planned Parenthood’s facility in Rogers. Pro-lifers just wrapped up a series of prayer vigils outside the facility that lasted forty days. Lawmakers and leaders in the community have held public events opposing abortion in Rogers. And the University of Arkansas recently released a poll that indicates most Arkansans think abortion ought to be either completely illegal or restricted to certain situations. Arkansans do not support abortion on demand, and yet that’s what Planned Parenthood wants to bring to Northwest Arkansas.”

Cox said that pro-life groups will continue working to end abortion in Arkansas. “Arkansas has more than forty pregnancy resource centers that give women real options besides abortion. Our state is home to multiple pro-life organizations, and we arguably have the most pro-life General Assembly in the country. Arkansas was recently ranked the most pro-life state in the nation. We are fully committed to ending abortion in our state and giving women with unplanned pregnancies the resources they need to choose an option besides abortion.”

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