House Health Committee Defeats Bad Abortion Law

On Tuesday afternoon the House Public Health Committee defeated a bad law that would possibly allow hundreds — or even thousands — of abortions on healthy unborn children every year.

Right now abortion in Arkansas is generally prohibited except to save the life of the mother. This year Arkansas passed an excellent measure clarifying and closing loopholes in the state’s pro-life laws.

H.B. 1880 by Rep. Ashley Hudson (D — Little Rock) would expand abortion in Arkansas.

The bill would add sweeping health exceptions for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. It also would permit abortion in cases of rape or incest or when a baby may be at risk of certain fetal abnormalities.

In other states, courts have interpreted health exceptions like the ones in H.B. 1880 very broadly. Adding these kinds of vague exceptions to pro-life laws makes it much easier to justify abortion and can effectively allow abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy in some cases.

On Tuesday the House Public Health Committee met to discuss H.B. 1880, and many pro-lifers were present to testify against the bill. During discussion, Rep. Ryan Rose (R — Van Buren) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R — Perryville) highlighted flaws in the bill’s wording and ways it would undermine Arkansas’ good laws that protect women and unborn children from abortion.

After hearing testimony on the bill, the committee voted against this bad abortion measure.

Family Council deeply appreciates our friends at Arkansas Right to Life who worked very hard against this bill, and we want to thank the state representatives who spoke against the bill and voted against it in committee on Tuesday.

As we have written many times, since 2019, there has been a lot of discussion about putting exceptions for rape and incest in Arkansas’ pro-life laws.

Rape and incest are evil. A woman who is raped is a victim in every sense of the word, and only about 2%–5% of all abortions are performed because of rape or incest.

In light of that, it’s easy for some people to justify abortion in these situations.

But there are serious problems with allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest.

Below are a few points to consider.

The Unborn Baby is Totally Innocent

An unborn boy or girl has no control over how he or she was conceived.

These are living human beings.

It is not right to kill an unborn baby because the baby’s father was a rapist.

Abortion Helps Conceal Crimes Like Rape, Incest, and Sex Trafficking

Sexual predators sometimes coerce their victims into having abortions to conceal rape or incest.

In 2016 abortionist Ulrich Klopfer admitted to the Indiana Medical Licensing Board that he once performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl from Illinois who had been raped by her uncle.

Dr. Klopfer did not report the crime to law enforcement. He let the girl go home to her parents who knew about the rape and had decided not to prosecute. As far as we can tell, that girl’s uncle was never brought to justice.

In 2014 researchers Laura Lederer and Christopher Wetzel found 55% of sex-trafficking survivors surveyed reported at least one abortion, and 29.9% reported multiple abortions. Lederer and Wetzel concluded,

The prevalence of forced abortions is an especially disturbing trend in sex trafficking. . . . One victim noted that “in most of [my six abortions,] I was under serious pressure from my pimps to abort the babies.” Another survivor, whose abuse at the hands of her traffickers was particularly brutal, reported seventeen abortions and indicated that at least some of them were forced on her.

Abortion helps cover up evil crimes like these.

Rapists Have No Legal Claim to Their Victims or Their Victims’ Children

Under Arkansas law, a rapist has no legal claim to his victim or the children of his victim.

That means a woman or girl who becomes pregnant because of rape can keep the child or put the child up for adoption, but she does not have to consult the rapist or share custody with him.

Arkansas law is very clear on that point.

Additionally, state courts can take other appropriate action to protect victims of rape or incest and their children.

Abortion Does Not Heal the Harm That Rape and Incest Cause

Abortion doesn’t heal the wounds that rape or incest leave behind.

Abortion takes the life of an unborn baby, and it carries dangerous risks for the woman.

Abortion is not a quick fix. Its consequences are very serious.

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

Governor Sanders Signs Good Law Protecting Women and Children from Abortion Drugs

On Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a good law clarifying that abortion by fraud is a crime in Arkansas.

Right now abortion in Arkansas is generally prohibited except to save the life of the mother, and it is illegal to deliver abortion-inducing drugs into the state. Arkansas also has laws prohibiting fetal homicide.

However, Arkansas has no specific law addressing situations in which a person secretly gives abortion drugs like RU-486 to a pregnant woman.

H.B. 1551 by Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R — Paragould) makes it a felony to try to kill an unborn child by secretly giving a pregnant woman abortion-inducing drugs without her knowledge or consent.

In 2022 abortion drugs were secretly placed in Catherine Herring’s water in order to cause the death of her unborn child.

Ms. Herring suffered serious health complications and had to be hospitalized as a result. Since then, states have begun proposing laws like H.B. 1551 to prevent this type of crime.

H.B. 1551 passed the Arkansas House and Arkansas Senate without a single lawmaker voting against it. With the governor’s signature on Tuesday, H.B. 1551 is now slated to take full effect later this summer.

Family Council appreciates our friends at Arkansas Right to Life, who were the lead champions of this good law. We appreciate all of the state legislators who voted for H.B. 1551, and we appreciate the governor signing it into law.

H.B. 1551 is a good law that will help protect women and unborn children from dangerous abortion drugs. That is something Arkansans should be proud of.

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

House Committee Discusses Ways to Fight Back Against Illegal Abortion Drugs

Above: Rep. Wayne Long and Family Council staff member Erin Hogan discuss pro-life bill H.B. 1678 in the House Judiciary Committee.

Last week the House Judiciary Committee discussed a good bill that would help address illegal abortion drugs in Arkansas.

In Arkansas, abortion is generally prohibited except to save the life of the mother. It is also against the law to deliver abortion-inducing drugs like RU-486 into the state.

However, pro-life states like Arkansas are struggling to stop abortionists in other states from trafficking illegal abortion drugs across state lines.

NPR reported last year that legislators in some pro-abortion states have enacted “shield laws” to protect abortionists who ship abortion drugs across state lines. The shield laws give abortionists immunity from civil or criminal liability and prevent them from being extradited to the state where the abortion drugs were sent. That makes it very difficult for authorities in Arkansas to hold abortionists in other states accountable for breaking the law.

This year Rep. Wayne Long (R — Bradford) filed H.B. 1678 to strengthen Arkansas’ Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act that prevents abortion drugs from being delivered or administered illegally in Arkansas.

H.B. 1678 would increase the penalty for selling or prescribing illegal abortion drugs, and it would make it easier to take an abortionist to court for violating the Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act.

All of this would provide additional options for enforcing Arkansas’ pro-life laws.

The Arkansas Legislature is expected to adjourn soon, and lawmakers are running out of time to hear and discuss all of the bills at the Capitol right now. However, House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Carol Dalby (R — Texarkana) made sure that Rep. Long had an opportunity to present H.B. 1678 to the committee last week.

On April 3, the House Judiciary Committee met to discuss H.B. 1678 in committee. Rep. Long explained the bill to the committee members and took the time to answer questions about H.B. 1678. Several points were raised about the different ways Arkansas might enforce its good, pro-life laws. After about 20 minutes of discussion, Rep. Long opted to pull H.B. 1678 down so he could work on it some more. Pulling the bill down gives Rep. Long an opportunity to improve the bill and present it again at a later date.

Family Council deeply appreciates Rep. Dalby making sure H.B. 1678 received a fair hearing in the House Judiciary Committee last week, and we appreciate Rep. Long’s willingness to work with the committee members on this important issue.

Abortion drugs like RU-486 hurt women and kill unborn children. We simply can’t let abortionists in states like New York or California violate the pro-life laws that our legislators have passed.

Rep. Long, Rep. Dalby, and the House Judiciary Committee are giving this issue the attention it deserves, and Family Council is pleased to get to work alongside them to stop abortion drugs in Arkansas.

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