Missouri Passes Pro-Life Law Barring Taxpayer Funds From Going to Abortionists and Their Affiliates

Abortion, , ,

On Friday Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a law preventing taxpayer funds from going to abortionists and their affiliates.

Missouri already prevents public funds from directly paying for abortions. The new law helps further ensure that Missouri’s taxpayer dollars don’t indirectly subsidize abortion and abortionists.

The law is similar to measures Arkansas has passed over the years to prevent state funds and government contracts from going to abortionists and their affiliates.

Groups like Planned Parenthood divide their organization into regional and national affiliates. That can make it difficult to know if taxpayer funds given to one affiliate directly or indirectly subsidize abortion at another affiliate. This type of legislation helps address that problem by clarifying that abortionists’ affiliates cannot receive taxpayer funds at all.

As states like Arkansas and Missouri take steps to prohibit abortion and provide support for women and families with unplanned pregnancies, it’s important to make sure taxpayer dollars do not promote abortion.

Right now an amendment effort is underway that threatens to nullify all of Arkansas pro-life laws — including Arkansas’ laws against taxpayer-funded abortion.

Arkansans for Limited Government is collecting petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the November ballot.

If passed, the amendment would write abortion into the state constitution, allowing thousands of elective abortions in Arkansas every year.

The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment. That jeopardizes even the most basic restrictions on abortion.

The amendment also would pave the way for taxpayer-funded abortion in Arkansas by changing Amendment 68 to the Arkansas Constitution that currently prohibits taxpayer funded abortion in the state.

Arkansans have generally opposed taxpayer-funded abortion, but taxpayer-funded abortion through all nine months of pregnancy could become a reality in Arkansas if the abortion amendment passes.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Planned Parenthood Still Pushes Publicly Funded Sex-Education Despite Past Failures

Sex Education, , ,

Planned Parenthood is still promoting publicly funded sex-education despite the program’s past failures.

On Tuesday the nation’s leading abortion provider posted on X,

Hey state politicians sex ed in schools actually reduces the rate of unplanned pregnancies and STIs!

It’s almost as if giving young people the tools and education they need to make healthy decisions actually helps them make healthy decisions. Wild, right?

The irony is that government evaluations have shown Planned Parenthood’s publicly funded sex-education and family planning strategies simply do not work the way Planned Parenthood claims they do.

Several years ago the Obama Administration gave Planned Parenthood millions of dollars to conduct teen pregnancy prevention programs in the Pacific Northwest.

Afterwards, evaluations of Planned Parenthood’s sex-education program found students who went through it were often more likely to become pregnant or cause a pregnancy.

In other words, Planned Parenthood’s multimillion dollar sex-education program did exactly the opposite of what the federal government wanted.

In the 1980s and 1990s, public officials in Arkansas promoted Planned Parenthood-style sex-education, but the programs failed to have a meaningful impact on teen pregnancy and abortion in Arkansas.

Then in 1997 the Arkansas Legislature and Governor Mike Huckabee began promoting abstinence education in Arkansas. From 1997 to 2005, Arkansas’ teen birthrate decreased 17% — and Arkansas’ teen abortion rate plummeted a staggering 48%.

Governor Huckabee’s abstinence education model was so successful in Arkansas that it drew national recognition.

In 2016 — again, while President Barack Obama was still in office — the federal Centers for Disease Control released a 208-page report concluding teenagers who practice abstinence were healthier in nearly every way than teenagers who are sexually active.

The report looked at everything from seatbelt and bike helmet use to substance abuse, diet, exercise, and even tanning bed use.

The CDC found sexually-active teens were less healthy and engaged in riskier behavior across the board.

The report underscored that not only were abstinence education models like Arkansas’ effective at reducing teen pregnancy and abortion, but they also promoted healthier lifestyle choices across the board.

So while Planned Parenthood continues to promote public funding for its ineffective sex-education programs, Arkansas has shown there are much better ways to reduce teen pregnancy. Handing out tax dollars to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood simply is not the answer.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Governor Signs Measure Providing $2M in Grants to Support Pregnancy Centers, Maternal Wellness in Arkansas

Abortion, , ,

On Tuesday Governor Sanders signed a budget measure providing $2 million to support pregnancy help organizations and maternal and infant wellness in Arkansas.

The funding will provide grants to pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and other organizations that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

For years, states across America have taken steps to provide pregnancy resource centers with state and federal tax money to support the services they provide.

This funding helps serve families at the local level without creating new government programs.

In 2022 Family Council worked with the legislature and the governor to secure $1 million for pregnancy centers. This funding provided grants to more than 20 pregnancy help organizations.

Last year we worked with lawmakers to renew this funding, and since then more than two dozen good organizations across the state have applied for this money and used it to give women and families real assistance when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

S.B. 64 makes improvements to the grant program. It increases state funding from $1 million per year to $2 million. This puts Arkansas’ funding on parr with funding in other states.

The law also clarifies that “pregnancy help organizations” include nonprofit organizations that promote infant and maternal wellness and reduce infant and maternal mortality by:

  • Providing nutritional information and/or nutritional counseling;
  • Providing prenatal vitamins;
  • Providing a list of prenatal medical care options;
  • Providing social, emotional, and/or material support; or
  • Providing referrals for WIC and community-based nutritional services, including but not limited to food banks, food pantries, and food distribution centers.

The measure includes language preventing state funds from going to abortionists and their affiliates.

This legislation is something Arkansans can be proud of. Family Council is grateful to the General Assembly for passing S.B. 64, and we appreciate Governor Sanders signing it into law. We look forward to seeing the state implement the expanded grant program in the coming fiscal year.

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