Life – Page 145 – Family Council

FDA Change Shows Arkansas Was Forward-Thinking On Pro-Life Laws

Apr 16, 2021Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Earlier this week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it would no longer require women to visit a doctor’s office in order to get the RU-486 chemical abortion drugs.

The change also lets abortionists deliver RU-486 to women by mail.

In the wake of COVID-19, doctor’s offices around the country shut their doors and moved to “telemedicine” only.

Abortionists in some states seized this as an opportunity to push abortion drugs. They offered abortion consultations and prescriptions over webcam or telephone. Planned Parenthood, in particular, ramped up promotion of its “telehealth” programs.

However, abortionists have not been able to prescribe abortion drugs over the phone or via webcam in Arkansas. That’s thanks to laws that pro-lifers have implemented over the past few years.

Since 2013, Arkansas Right to Life, Family Council, and others have worked with pro-life legislators to implement good laws that prevent abortion drugs from being approved via telemedicine.

Most recently, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 560 and Act 562 of 2021.

Act 560 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R – Springdale) and Sen. Scott Flippo (R – Mountain Home) outlines the informed-consent process for chemical abortion. Arkansas’ current informed-consent laws for abortion are geared primarily for surgical abortion procedures. Act 560 will help ensure women get all the facts about chemical abortion — including its risks, consequences, and pro-life alternatives.

This will help women choose options besides abortion.

Act 562 by Rep. Sonia Barker (R – Smackover) and Sen. Blake Johnson (R – Corning) updates Arkansas’ restrictions on abortion-inducing drugs like RU-486. Among other things, it outlines requirements that abortionists must follow in administering abortion-inducing drugs, and it prohibits abortion drugs from being delivered by mail in Arkansas.

This will help ensure that abortion-inducing drugs aren’t approved via telemedicine and mailed in Arkansas — even though the FDA is removing some of its restrictions on abortion drugs.

All of this underscores that Arkansas has been very forward-thinking when it comes to abortion. We’ve been able to pass good laws that anticipated things like telemed abortions changes in the FDA’s rules for RU-486.

That’s going to ensure that unborn children in Arkansas continue to be protected from abortion — even if members of the federal government try to make it easier to abort a child.

Arkansas Passes Measure to Mark Anniversary of Roe v. Wade as “Day of Tears”

Apr 15, 2021Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Arkansas Legislature, Life

*Sen. Rapert presents H.C.R. 1007 in the Arkansas Senate.*

On Wednesday the Arkansas Senate passed pro-life resolution H.C.R. 1007. The resolution previously passed the Arkansas House of Representatives.

This good resolution by Rep. Jim Wooten (R – Beebe) and Sen. Jason Rapert (R – Conway) recognizes January 22 — the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade abortion decision — as “The Day of Tears” in Arkansas.

The resolution also acknowledges the 61 million unborn babies killed in abortion in America over the past five decades, and it encourages Arkansans to lower their flags to half-staff on January 22 to mourn the innocent children who have lost their lives.

Alabama passed a similar resolution last month.

This is a good resolution that will forever mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade in Arkansas — and remember the destruction that abortion has caused in our country.

Attorney General Rutledge Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Review Arkansas Law Barring Abortion Based on Down Syndrome

Apr 14, 2021Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

The following is a press release from Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office.

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that held the Constitution guarantees a right to selective abortion of children with Down syndrome. In January, the Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s order that blocked Arkansas’s law prohibiting abortions that are performed solely on the basis of Down syndrome. Attorney General Rutledge’s petition asks the Supreme Court to reverse the Eighth Circuit.
“The Constitution does not require Arkansas to permit discrimination-by-abortion against Americans with Down syndrome,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “Through my personal friendships, I know that while individuals with Down syndrome may have an extra chromosome, they also have extra love and joy they share unconditionally, and I will not stand by while God’s gifts are exterminated as has been done in other countries.”
In 2019, Arkansas lawmakers passed Act 619, the Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act. It prohibits a practitioner from performing an abortion if the woman is seeking the abortion “solely on the basis of” a diagnosis of Down syndrome or any other reason to believe the child has Down syndrome.
Shortly before Act 619 took effect, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and O’Melveny & Myers, an international law firm based in California, sued to block it and other laws. The federal district court in Little Rock took their side and ruled that the Constitution guarantees a right to selectively abort children with Down syndrome.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed, because it felt bound by prior decisions that have misinterpreted the Supreme Court’s precedent. Although the Eighth Circuit ultimately ruled against Arkansas, two of the three judges agreed with Arkansas that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to discriminatory, selective abortions. These two judges asked the Supreme Court to correct its precedent.
The case is called Rutledge v. Little Rock Family Planning Services, No. 20-1434. For a copy of the petition, click here.