#TBT 1990: Pro-Abortion Group’s Little Known Constitutional Amendment

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Photo Credit: Arkansas Citizen, Volume 2, July, 1990

Twenty-nine years ago the Committee for Reproductive Choices launched a petition drive to place a pro-abortion amendment on the ballot in Arkansas.

The amendment would have made abortion a constitutional right and, in the words of one attorney, “straight-jacket” Arkansas into the most extreme abortion policy in the nation, at the time.

The amendment’s supporters included the ACLU and Advocates for Reproductive Information and Support (ARIS).

The pro-abortion amendment’s text read,

AN AMENDMENT PREVENTING STATE INTERVENTION IN REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES

Section 1. The State shall not intervene in any woman’s personal reproductive decisions, including but not limited to, the right to choose to become pregnant, to carry a pregnancy to term and to bear a child or to prevent pregnancy or to terminate her pregnancy through abortion by a licensed medical doctor through the twentyfourth (24th) week of pregnancy. The state shall not intervene in a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy to protect her life or health.

Section 2. Nothing in this provision shall restrict a person’s religious freedom.

The amendment effectively would have written the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton abortion decisions into the Arkansas Constitution.

In Roe the court ruled states had little power to restrict abortion during the first and second trimesters.

In Doe the court ruled states could not prohibit abortions deemed necessary to save the life or protect the health of the mother.

Both of these rulings were changed in 1992, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that dismantled Roe‘s trimester framework and ruled states could regulate abortion as a medical procedure.

Thankfully, this pro-abortion amendment from 1990 never took root in Arkansas.

However, it serves as a reminder of how far Arkansas has come in the fight to protect unborn children.

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Assisted Suicide Kills as Many Canadians as Automobiles

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Our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview have penned a striking commentary that highlights the realities of physician-assisted suicide in Canada.

John Stonestreet writes,

According to a recent Health Canada report, between January and October, 2018, 2,600 people were euthanized there, an average of 218 a month. Thus, by the end of 2018, it’s likely that at least 3,000 Canadians died by doctor-assisted suicide.

That’s as many people as were killed in automobile accidents that year.


Assisted-suicide is a serious problem. We’re winning the battle to end abortion, but suicide is the next big front in the pro-life fight.

Here’s important information everyone needs to know about assisted-suicide.

Researchers in North America have continued to find that people who ask a doctor to prescribe drugs to help them commit suicide generally aren’t concerned about pain and suffering caused by a terminal illness. They’re worried about losing their autonomy or their way of life.

In Canada — where assisted-suicide is legal — researchers found that people inquired about assisted-suicide not because of excruciating pain, but because they are dissatisfied with their lives in the wake of their illness.

As one researcher put it, “Their quality of life is not what they want. They are mostly educated and affluent — people who are used to being successful and in control of their lives, and it’s how they want their death to be.”

Since 1998, more than 90% of the people who inquired about assisted suicide in Oregon said they were concerned about losing their autonomy. More than 75% expressed worries about losing their dignity. Only 26% said they were concerned about controlling their pain.

Last August we told you Belgian doctors have euthanized at least three minors suffering from brain tumors, muscular dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis. And in October we wrote that Canada’s largest children’s hospital was drafting a policy regarding euthanasia that some say could eventually let children decide to be euthanized without even notifying their parents.

I’ll keep saying it: Being pro-life means believing human life is sacred from conception until natural death, and it means opposing the taking of human life without just cause. Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted-suicide are murder, and they violate the sanctity of human life.

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40 Days for Life Saves Baby from Abortion in Little Rock

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40 Days for Life recently wrapped up its spring prayer campaign.

For 40 days each spring and fall pro-life volunteers gather outside abortion facilities worldwide to pray that abortion will end.

In March volunteers praying outside Arkansas’ only surgical abortion facility reported that at least one child had been saved from abortion while they were there.

40 Days for Life writes,

“Praise the Lord! We have a CONFIRMED baby save this morning!” said Toni in Little Rock. “Parents came out of the clinic and told the sidewalk helpers that they changed their minds.”

40 Days for Life also says that according to former abortion facility workers,
the “no-show” rate for abortion appointments can go to as high as 75% when someone prays in front of an abortion facility.

Arkansans are working successfully to end abortion one life at a time.

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