More Pro-Life Legislation Filed in Arkansas

Today Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R – Rogers) and Rep. Rebecca Petty (R – Rogers) filed S.B. 168 improving Arkansas’ Safe Haven Act.

Arkansas passed the Safe Haven Act in 2001 to make it possible for women to leave newborn children in the care of law enforcement agencies or medical providers, such as hospitals.

In other states, newborn babies have been abandoned in parks and public restrooms in hopes that someone would find and take care of them. The Safe Haven Act lets a woman surrender her newborn to law enforcement or medical personnel instead — without the possibility of criminal prosecution or endangering her child. Over the years other states have passed similar laws.

The Safe Haven Act helps protect the lives and safety of newborn babies. It also offers another option besides abortion to women with unplanned pregnancies.

S.B. 168 makes this good law even better by letting fire departments that are staffed twenty-four hours a day accept newborn babies as well. This will expand the number of locations where women can safely surrender a newborn, and will make it less likely that a child might be abandoned.

The bill also gives fire departments, law enforcement agencies, and medical facilities the option of installing specially designed and approved safety devices commonly called “safe haven boxes.”

These devices let women surrender their newborns safely and anonymously to licensed medical or law enforcement personnel, and have been used successfully in Indiana and elsewhere.

This is a good bill that our friends at Arkansas Right to Life strongly support.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Public Health Committee. We will keep you posted on its progress.

You can read S.B. 168 here.

You can leave a message for your State Senator regarding S.B. 168 at 501-682-2902.

You can leave a message for your State Representative at 501-682-6211.

Bill Would Protect Free Speech on Public College Campuses in Arkansas

Today Sen. Bob Ballinger (R – Berryville) and Rep. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) filed S.B. 156, the Forming Open and Robust University Minds (FORUM) Act.

This good bill prevents public colleges and universities from squelching free speech on campus.

In some states students and faculty have faced discipline and discrimination for sharing their faith or expressing their deeply held convictions. In Jonesboro, Arkansas State University adopted policies restricting free speech to roughly 1% of campus and requiring students to obtain approval from university officials before engaging in free speech.

The restrictions prompted a lawsuit against the university. Last fall, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos publicly criticized the university’s restrictions on free speech.

S.B. 156 helps prevent public colleges and universities from imposing these unconstitutional restrictions on students and faculty. It protects students’ rights to peacefully assemble, speak, share literature, and exchange ideas.

It requires public colleges and universities to adopt policies protecting free speech on campus.

S.B. 156 is carefully worded. It does not allow violent speech, riots, harassment, or other unlawful conduct. It equally protects everyone’s right to free speech under the First Amendment.

For several months, Family Council has been working with attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom to bring this good legislation to Arkansas.

We applaud Senator Ballinger and Representative Sullivan for introducing this well-crafted Alliance Defending Freedom model bill.

You can leave a message for your State Senator at 501-682-2902 urging him or her to vote for S.B. 156 the FORUM Act.

You can leave a message for your State Representative at 501-682-6211 urging him or her to do the same.

Please thank the lead sponsors of this bill:

Senator Bob Ballinger: bob.ballinger@senate.ar.gov (870) 350-5175

Representative Dan Sullivan: dan.sullivan@arkansashouse.org (870) 275-2929

This bill could be debated in the Senate Education Committee as early as next week. We plan to keep you posted on its progress.

Photo Credit: “Old Main from the northwest, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas (autumn)” by Brandonrush – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.