Tag: Life

A.G. Rutledge Requests Rehearing on Pro-Life Law

Yesterday Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed for a rehearing in a court case that struck part of a 2013 pro-life law.

The law–known as the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act–was sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) in 2013; it prevents abortions after the twelfth week of pregnancy if a fetal heartbeat is detected–except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother.

The law passed the Arkansas Legislature handily, but was vetoed by Gov. Mike Beebe. After legislators voted to override the governor’s veto, the law went into effect, but was challenged as unconstitutional in a lawsuit.

As a result of that lawsuit, federal District Judge Susan Webber Wright struck down much of the law as unconstitutional, and late last May a panel of three federal judges upheld her ruling. The Attorney General’s Office has requested a rehearing of the case before the entire Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A rehearing would provide an opportunity for the federal court to reverse the lower court’s ruling and reinstate a good, pro-life law that protects unborn children and promotes women’s health; the longer a woman waits to have an abortion, the more dangerous abortion becomes.

Arkansas Department of Health data from 2010 – 2014 does not show a single abortion performed in Arkansas due to a medical emergency; the vast majority of abortions are performed on healthy mothers carrying healthy babies. It’s unfortunate abortion has become just another means of birth control. The Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act addresses that by specifying the timeframe during which an abortion can occur.

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Reports Show Arkansas Exporting Abortions to Neighboring States

This week the Arkansas Department of Health released its reports on abortions performed in the state during 2014. We’ve already written about some of the statistics from this year’s reports.

According to the reports, for the first time since 2006 the number of abortions performed in Arkansas went up last year, with 4,273 abortions performed in 2014. That’s an increase of 541 abortions–unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected; despite being on a downward trend, abortion totals fluctuate from year to year.

In reading the report, we noticed something interesting: The number of abortions performed on Arkansans last year (i.e. on women who reside in Arkansas) increased only slightly–from 3,205 in 2013 to 3,332 in 2014–while the number of abortions performed on women from out-of-state increased dramatically–from 527 in 2013 to 941 in 2014.

In other words, much of the increase in abortion in 2014 was due to women from other states obtaining abortions in Arkansas.

What’s more, as we looked at abortion data going back to the year 2000, we discovered that roughly 15% of the abortions performed in Arkansas were actually on women from out-of-state, and 1 in 5 women who had an abortion in Arkansas in 2014 was from out-of-state. Here is the data:

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2014 Fourth-Lowest Year for Abortion in Arkansas Since 1978

A new report from the Arkansas Department of Health this week shows there were 4,273 abortions performed in the state in 2014.

The number of abortions increased in 2014 over 2013 by about 541 abortions. However, much of that increase was the result of women in neighboring states like Tennessee and Mississippi obtaining abortions in Arkansas.

Overall, 2014 was the fourth-lowest year for abortion in Arkansas since 1978.

Abortion in Arkansas has been on a downward trend since the early 1990’s.

Since 2000, most abortions in Arkansas have been performed on women ages 20 – 29.

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