More Evidence Marijuana Use During Pregnancy May Harm Newborns

Marijuana

A recent study out of California found a link between heavy marijuana use during pregnancy and negative health outcomes among children.

Researchers found infants were 35% more likely to die within a year of birth if the mother used marijuana heavily; the study also found that infants were more likely to be born preterm, have a low birth weight, and be small for their gestational age.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, recent studies have shown marijuana use during pregnancy is rising, with some expectant mothers reportedly using it to relieve nausea and vomiting.

In 2019 the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory warning women not to use marijuana during pregnancy.

That same year the Arkansas Department of Health issued an advisory on marijuana as well.

Among other things, the Arkansas Department of Health’s advisory noted, “Marijuana is particularly harmful to a developing child. Smoking marijuana during pregnancy is associated with being born at low birth weight, a risk factor for death in the child’s first year of life.”

This latest research seems to confirm that marijuana is dangerous to children.

All of this underscores what we have said for years: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

READ MORE

State Lottery Still Overspending on Prizes, Undercutting Scholarships

Arkansas Lottery

The Arkansas Lottery recently released its financial report for the month of April.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $65.5 million last month. However, less than $12.3 million went to scholarships — about 19 cents out of every dollar the Arkansas Lottery made.

The report also shows the Arkansas Lottery spent nearly $47 million on prizes for lottery players. That’s approximately 71.6% of the lottery’s revenue.

For perspective, the typical state lottery budgets approximately 25% – 30% of its revenue for education and about 60% for prizes.

Recently, S.B. 649 by Sen. Charles Beckham (R – McNeil) and Rep. Richard Womack (R – Arkadelphia) would have required the Arkansas Lottery to increase the percentage of its revenue budgeted for scholarships to 25% over the next six years. 

This would have brought the Arkansas Lottery up to the standards of the typical state-run lottery — and it most likely would have provided millions of additional dollars in scholarship funding.

However, the legislation failed to pass, and the Arkansas Lottery is still operating irresponsibly.

Click here to see the Arkansas Lottery’s April financial reports.

READ MORE

ACLJ Files Brief in Support of Arkansas’ Pro-Life Law

Abortion

Earlier this month the American Center for Law and Justice filed an amicus brief in support of Arkansas’ law that prohibits abortions performed solely because the baby may have Down Syndrome — Act 619 of 2019.

At the time that Act 619 passed, Family Council estimated that the law could save upwards of 100 unborn children in Arkansas every single year.

The law has been tangled up in court ever since, and the State of Arkansas currently is blocked from enforcing it.

In April Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the nation’s highest court to take up the case.

So far 22 state attorneys general as well as sitting congressmen and U.S. senators have filed briefs in support of the law. Now the American Center for Law and Justice has come out in defense of the law as well.

The ACLJ brief notes:

[T]here are countless instances in which parents were told a child would be born with severe or fatal disabilities, when in fact the child turned out to be either perfectly healthy or had manageable, or even only minor, conditions. This has specifically happened regarding a false diagnosis of Down syndrome or related maladies.

This could turn out to be a landmark abortion case, because it has the potential to reshape how federal judges treat pro-life laws like Act 619 of 2019.

It could give the U.S. Supreme Court an opportunity to overturn past rulings like Roe v. Wade or Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

That would be a huge victory for pro-lifers in Arkansas — and everywhere else in America.

Read the ACLJ’s brief here.

READ MORE