State of Arkansas Awards Nearly Half a Million Dollars for Pro-Life Alternatives to Abortion

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The State of Arkansas has awarded nearly half a million dollars to more than two dozen organizations providing pro-life alternatives to abortion.

Last year the Arkansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed Act 622 of 2023 by Sen. Scott Flippo (R – Bull Shoals) and Rep. Lane Jean (R – Magnolia) authorizing $1 million in state-funded grants for crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services agencies that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies. The measure also contained language clarifying that grant funding cannot go to abortion providers or their affiliates.

In December lawmakers cast a procedural vote allowing the Department of Finance and Administration to begin disbursing the grants.

In January, the state awarded $486,480.54 to 26 different pregnancy resource centers. The rest of the $1 million in grant funding is expected to be distributed between now and June 30.

This money will have a tremendous, pro-life impact in Arkansas.

Now that abortion is prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother, we need to support women and families and eliminate the demand for abortion. This grant funding  does that. It provides women in Arkansas with actual pro-life options — meaning they are less likely to travel out of state for abortion.

Family Council was pleased to support passage of Act 622 last year, and we plan to work for passage of another appropriation measure at the Arkansas Legislature this April.

Below is a list of the resource centers and the grant amounts awarded so far.

Resource CenterDoing Business AsGrant Amount
INFORMED CHOICES WOMENS CENTER OF THE OZ$35,583.50
NEW BEGINNINGS PREGNANCY CENTER$23,985.00
PATHWAY RESOURCE CENTER$20,100.00
HOPEPLACE – FORDYCE$20,000.00
COMPASSION MINISTRIES LTD$20,000.00
ST FRANCIS HOUSE NWA INCCOMMUNITY CLINIC$20,000.00
CRADLE THE MATERNITY SUPPORT CENTER OF CKATHLEEN BLOSSOM$20,000.00
OPEN ARMS PREGNANCY CENTER INC$20,000.00
ST BERNARDS HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDAT$20,000.00
ABBA CHARITIES INC$20,000.00
ST JOSEPHS HELPERS OF PULASKI COUNTYARKANSAS PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER$20,000.00
HOPEPLACE NEWPORT$20,000.00
PLUM FOUNDATIONPEACE LOVE UNDERSTANDING MERCY$20,000.00
PREGNANCY HELP CENTERPREGNANCY HELP CLINIC$19,978.00
PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER FOR SOUTHWEST$19,959.50
CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER OF CENTRAL ARKANCARING HEARTS PREGNANCY CENTER$19,731.00
BAPTIST HEALTH FOUNDATION$19,500.00
SOUTH ARKANSAS CARING PREGNANCY CENTERHANNAH PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER$18,519.50
HEART TO HEART PREGNANCY SUPPORT CENTER$18,497.76
CHANGEPOINT PREGNANCY CARE AND PARENTING$16,837.50
HOPEPLACE MONTICELLO$16,746.50
HOPE OF THE DELTA CENTER$15,932.28
LIFES CHOICE PREGNANCY CARE CENTER$12,190.00
ARKANSAS BAPTIST CHILDRENS HOMES AND FAMLIVING WELL COUNSELING$11,925.75
FORT SMITH CHRISTIAN FAMILY SERVICES INC1ST CHOICE PREGNANCY MEDICAL CENTER$11,885.25
HOPES FIRST CHOICE PREGNANCY RESOURCE CE$5,109.00
Total$486,480.54

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Guest Column: The “Science” of Abortion

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Earlier this month, an image was shared on social media featuring what looked like a bit of used tissue paper with the caption, “Just a reminder that this is what an 8 week pregnancy/abortion looks like.” The inference is that pro-lifers are fools or liars to call the preborn “a child.”  

It didn’t take long for that tweet to get called out. The image had been doctored. The “tissue” was not an embryo but merely an empty gestational sac. A real 8-week embryo has hands and feet, heart and head, and is very clearly a tiny human being. 

While the claim “it’s just a clump of cells!” was questionable 50 years ago when someone first uttered it, decades of technological development make it morbidly laughable. The imagery available now completely undercuts any idea that what we see in the womb is less than human. What has been revealed is how divorced from reality the pro-abortion camp has always been.

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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Group Approved to Circulate Petitions for Amendment Writing Abortion into Arkansas Constitution

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Little Rock, Ark. – On Tuesday the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office certified a popular name and ballot title for the Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024. The measure’s sponsors now can begin collecting the 90,704 petition signatures necessary to place the measure on the ballot this November.

Family Council President Jerry Cox released a statement, saying, “This is a radical amendment legalizing abortion in a way Arkansas has never seen before. It writes abortion into the Arkansas Constitution. It erases virtually all of Arkansas’ pro-life laws, and it allows abortion on demand without restriction through the first eighteen weeks of pregnancy. As many as three thousand unborn children could be aborted in Arkansas each year because of this amendment, and the State of Arkansas would be powerless to prevent it.”

Cox said the amendment prevents Arkansas’ lawmakers from enacting basic abortion regulations. “Under this amendment, lawmakers and voters would lose the ability to enact even basic abortion regulations. The measure says abortion cannot be restricted at all during the first eighteen weeks after fertilization. That means abortionists won’t be required to have parental consent before performing an abortion on an underage girl. Abortionists won’t be required to explain the abortion procedure to the woman beforehand. These are requirements that people on both sides of the aisle have supported in the past, but this amendment would prevent them.”

Cox said the amendment also fails to address basic health and safety standards for abortion. “Nothing in this amendment requires abortionists to be licensed to practice medicine in Arkansas. It doesn’t require abortionists to follow basic health and safety standards. It doesn’t ensure that abortion facilities will be licensed or inspected. Courts could use it to require the State of Arkansas to pay for abortions with taxpayer funds. These are serious flaws with the amendment.”

Cox said the amendment likely would result in thousands of unborn children aborted every year, if passed. “Prior to the 2022 Dobbs decision, there were upwards of three thousand or more elective abortions performed in Arkansas each year during the first eighteen weeks of pregnancy. If this amendment passes, we estimate that at least that many unborn children would be aborted each year. For those thousands of children, this amendment literally is a matter of life and death. That’s the most serious problem with this measure.”

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Photo Credit: By jordanuhl7 [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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