Medical Conscience Protection Law Receives Strong Support in Arkansas Senate

Bioethics, ,

On Thursday afternoon, a conscience protection measure received strong support in the Arkansas Senate.

S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) strengthens the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021. Among other things, this good bill adds whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and it helps protect all medical professionals from having their rights of conscience violated.

In 2021, Arkansas passed Act 462 protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience.

Before that law passed, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly focused on abortion and end of life decisions, and they protected very few people. Act 462 helped broaden those protections and apply them to all healthcare workers.

S.B. 444 will help enhance the conscience protections Arkansas enacted four years ago. It now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The Following Senators Voted For S.B. 444

  • J. Boyd
  • J. Bryant
  • Caldwell
  • A. Clark
  • Crowell
  • B. Davis
  • Dees
  • J. Dismang
  • J. Dotson
  • J. English
  • Flippo
  • Gilmore
  • K. Hammer
  • Hester
  • Hickey
  • Hill
  • Irvin
  • B. Johnson
  • M. Johnson
  • B. King
  • M. McKee
  • J. Payton
  • C. Penzo
  • J. Petty
  • Rice
  • Stone
  • G. Stubblefield
  • D. Sullivan

The Following Senators Voted Against S.B. 444

  • G. Leding
  • F. Love
  • R. Murdock
  • J. Scott
  • C. Tucker

The Following Senators Were Excused from the Arkansas Senate

  • S. Flowers
  • D. Wallace

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

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New Bill Would Implement Reporting for Assisted Reproduction Technology

Bioethics,

A new bill would mandate reporting regarding assisted reproductive technology — like in vitro fertilization — in Arkansas.

H.B. 1554 by Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) and Sen. Jim Dotson (R — Bentonville) establishes the Assisted Reproductive Technology Reporting Act in Arkansas.

The bill would require fertility clinics to track and report key data related to assisted reproductive technology. H.B. 1554 also would mandate annual reporting on embryo creation, usage, and outcomes, as well as tracking maternal and neonatal health for children conceived through ART.

All of this would help the Arkansas Department of Health better track assisted reproductive technology in the state.

We have written before about the ethical problems with human egg harvesting, in vitro fertilization, commercial surrogacy, and other artificial reproductive technologies. H.B. 1554 could help expose unethical behavior in Arkansas.

You Can Read H.B. 1554 Here.

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Arkansas House Democrats Promote Bad Legislation As Part of 2025 Agenda

Abortion, Bioethics, , , , ,

The Arkansas Democratic House Caucus is promoting a slate of bad legislation as part of its “2025 Better Arkansas Agenda.”

The caucus is made up of Democratic legislators serving in the Arkansas House of Representatives. On Tuesday the caucus held a press conference unveiling its legislative package for next year. The caucus also posted a statement on social media promoting three bad bills that violate the sanctity and dignity of human life — H.B. 1011, H.B. 1013, and H.B. 1014.

H.B. 1011 — the “Restore Roe Act” by Rep. Andrew Collins (D — Little Rock) — is a bad bill that would repeal Arkansas’ pro-life laws and legalize abortion throughout the state.

H.B. 1013 by Rep. Collins is a bad bill that would let fertility clinics in Arkansas create and kill human embryos as part of unethical in vitro fertilization — or IVF — practices, and H.B. 1014 by Rep. Collins would require the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Program to pay for these IVF practices.

IVF labs in America often operate almost as if human embryos were a factory product that lab workers can create, implant, freeze, or kill at will. But people aren’t products. There are ethical fertility treatments out there — including ethical approaches to IVF — but H.B. 1013 and H.B. 1014 fail to distinguish ethical fertility treatments from from unethical ones.

Unethical IVF will not improve maternal health in Arkansas. And abortion hurts women and takes the lives of unborn children. Laws like these simply will not make Arkansas “better” in 2025.

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

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