Page 784 – Family Council

Bill Filed to Protect Healthcare Workers’ Rights of Conscience in Arkansas

Feb 4, 2021Jerry CoxLegislation, Legislature, Rights of ConscienceArkansas Legislature, Conscience

On Thursday Sen. Kim Hammer (R – Benton) and Rep. Brandt Smith (R – Jonesboro) filed S.B. 289, the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act. This good bill protects healthcare workers’ rights of conscience in Arkansas.

S.B. 289 supplements existing conscience protections in Arkansas law.

It emphasizes the right of healthcare providers, institutions, and payers to decline to participate in medical procedures that violate their moral, religious, or ethical convictions. It also prohibits retaliatory discrimination against healthcare providers, institutions, or payers for declining to participate in healthcare services that violate their consciences.

Arkansas’ current conscience protections are narrowly focused on abortion, abortifacients, and end of life decisions, and they protect only a limited number of people. S.B. 289 helps broaden and strengthen those protections for healthcare workers.

No one should have to worry about facing discrimination for obeying their conscientious convictions.

You can read S.B. 289 here.

Bill Filed to Improve Arkansas’ Restrictions on Abortion Drugs

Feb 4, 2021Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Arkansas Legislature, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

On Wednesday Rep. Sonia Barker (R – Smackover) and Sen. Blake Johnson (R – Corning) filed H.B. 1402 improving Arkansas’ restrictions on drugs like RU-486 that doctors use in chemical abortions.

H.B. 1402 outlines requirements that abortionists must follow in administering abortion-inducing drugs, and it prohibits abortion drugs from being delivered by mail in Arkansas.

It also updates current law to ensure doctors who perform chemical abortions are credentialed to handle abortion complications and can transfer the woman to a hospital if she experiences complications.

Since 2015, we’ve seen a push at the federal level to make abortion-inducing drugs easier to obtain.

Under President Obama’s watch, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the protocols for the RU-486 regimen. These changes made it easier for abortionists to give abortion-inducing drugs to women.

Pro-abortion activists also have taken legal action demanding that abortion drugs be available by mail rather than in-person from a doctor’s office.

H.B. 1402 will help act as a shield if the Biden Administration or the courts decide to relax these federal abortion rules any further. It also helps further clarify Arkansas’ restrictions on chemical abortions.

That has the potential to protect a lot of unborn children in Arkansas.

You can read H.B. 1402 here.

Bill Declaring Religion as Essential Passes Senate, Goes to Governor

Feb 4, 2021Jerry CoxLegislation, Legislature, Religious FreedomArkansas Legislature, COVID-19, Religious Freedom, Religious Liberty

On Wednesday the Arkansas Senate overwhelmingly passed H.B. 1211.

This good bill by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Kim Hammer (R – Benton) recognizes that religion and religious organizations are essential in Arkansas.

In other states we’ve seen churches and religious organizations singled out during the COVID-19 pandemic. H.B. 1211 helps prevent that from ever happening in Arkansas.

Public officials have the authority to protect health and public safety, but the the free exercise of religion is never suspended.

H.B. 1211 ensures our government never closes churches during a disaster or other emergency.

It prevents the government from penalizing a church that meets during an emergency, and it requires churches to comply with the same basic health and safety standards as everyone else.

Churches and charities support their communities during an emergency. They need to be free to serve people without worrying that the government might punish them. H.B. 1211 provides that protection.

H.B. 1211 passed with overwhelming support in the Arkansas House and Arkansas Senate. It now goes to Governor Hutchinson’s desk to be signed into law.

Below is a breakdown of how the Arkansas Senate voted on H.B. 1211.