Human Heartbeat Protection Act Passes Senate Committee

The Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert, has passed the Senate Public Health Committee. If Rapert’s bill makes it through the entire legislative process, it will prevent abortion upon detection of a fetal heartbeat, except to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest. Arkansas would then have the strongest pro-life law in the nation.

This bill will soon be considered by the full Arkansas Senate. Now is the time to call your state senator and ask him or her to support Sen. Rapert’s bill, the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act.

The phone number for the Arkansas Senate is 501-682-2902. If you don’t know who your state senator is, we’d be happy to help out. Just give us a call at 501-375-7000.

Pro-Life Bill by Rep. Wilkins Fails to Pass House Public Health

HB1100 by Representative Butch Wilkins (D-Bono) failed by a vote of 10 to 7 to pass the House Public Health Committee today.

The bill would have prevented taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions under the state insurance exchanges due to be set up next year as part of Obamacare. The bill would have allowed abortions to be paid for privately, without public funds.

Below is a breakdown of the vote from today’s meeting. An “Aye” vote means the committee member supported the bill; a “Nay” vote means the committee member opposed the bill; a “Present” vote means the committee member did not want to vote either way. The bill needed at least 11 votes to pass.

On another note, Representative Greg Leding (D-Fayetteville) voiced opposition to the bill by telling a private citizen who came to testify in favor of the bill that “pro-life” is “just a silly label,” and even went so far as to ask the “pro-death” members of the committee to raise their hands.

Important: Senator Rapert Files Heartbeat Bill

This afternoon Senator Jason Rapert (R-Bigelow) filed SB134, the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act.

This act would prevent abortion upon detection of a fetal heartbeat, except to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape or incest.

Important: Senator Rapert has 18 co-sponsors on the bill in the Arkansas Senate and 22 co-sponsors in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Your Senator and Representative need to hear from you. Contact your senator and your representative, and ask each of them to support SB134, the Human Heartbeat Protection Act, by Senator Jason Rapert.

  • The phone number for the Arkansas Senate is 501-682-2902.
  • The phone number for the Arkansas House of Representatives is 501-682-6211.

We will have more information in the future. In the meantime, you can read the bill here.