Pro-life – Page 41 – Family Council

Amendment Filed to Enshrine Abortion in Arkansas Constitution

Nov 27, 2023Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Abortion Amendment, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

On Monday the group Arkansans for Limited Government announced it is working to place an abortion amendment on the ballot in Arkansas in 2024.

The proposed amendment’s wording is available here.

This amendment puts the lives of women and unborn children in jeopardy.

If approved, this amendment would permanently enshrine abortion in the Arkansas Constitution.

The amendment’s language would prevent Arkansas law from requiring abortionists to have parental consent before performing an abortion on an underage girl. Parental consent laws for abortion help protect children from trafficking and exploitation. Repealing those laws puts underage girls at risk.

The amendment’s wording also could permit abortion in Arkansas through all nine months of pregnancy — including late term abortion and partial-birth abortion. Most Americans oppose these abortion procedures, but this amendment could give them constitutional protection in Arkansas.

Family Council has worked for nearly 35 years to promote and protect the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life in Arkansas. If passed, this amendment would erase nearly four decades of good laws that protect women and unborn children from abortion. We are firmly committed to stopping abortion in our state.

Family Council Joins Others in Court Supporting Iowa Heartbeat Law, Defending Personhood of Unborn Children

Nov 27, 2023Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Earlier this month Family Council joined 32 other pro-life public policy organizations defending an Iowa law before the state’s supreme court and arguing that unborn children are protected by the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In July, Iowa’s general assembly passed a law generally prohibiting abortion if the unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat.

Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit challenging the heartbeat law, and a county district court blocked the State of Iowa from enforcing it. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird appealed that lower court’s bad decision to the Iowa Supreme Court on November 8.

On November 15, Family Council joined 32 other pro-life, pro-family organizations filing an amicus brief in the case.

The brief argues that an unborn child in the mother’s womb is a “person” under the Fourteenth Amendment — which means the child is entitled to equal protection under the law.

We believe Iowa’s pro-life law is constitutional, and we trust the Iowa Supreme Court to uphold it. However, even if Iowa loses in state court, this case — and the amicus briefs filed in it — could set the stage for future pro-life victories in Iowa and elsewhere around the country. That’s something to look forward to.

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

State of Arkansas Accepting Grant Applications from Pregnancy Help Organizations

Nov 7, 2023Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

The State of Arkansas has begun accepting grant applications from pro-life pregnancy help organizations. The grants are part of the state’s 2023 Pregnancy Help Organizations Grant Program for the 2023-2024 budget cycle.

In April, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Act 622 of 2023 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.

Under Act 622, the Department of Finance and Administration distributes this grant funding to eligible organizations that provide women and families with alternatives to abortion.

This $1 million in grant funding will help offer women actual pro-life assistance in the face of an unexpected pregnancy.

Since the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade, state legislatures around the country have ramped up state funding for pregnancy help organizations.

For example, Ohio recently raised its state budget for pregnancy resource centers to $14 million per biennium.

In Tennessee, legislators appropriated $20 million for pro-life organizations that provide alternatives to abortion. Florida’s state budget allocates $30 million pregnancy help organizations.

The Texas Legislature budgets $50 million per year to its abortion alternatives program.

And Kansas — where some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in 2022 — will provide $2 million to pregnancy centers.

In June the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration finished awarding $1 million in grant funds to pregnancy help organizations as part of the 2022-2023 budget cycle. Now the state is preparing to award another million dollars by June 30, 2024.

Now that Roe v. Wade has been reversed and abortion is generally prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother, the state needs to take steps to make abortion unthinkable and unnecessary. That is what this grant funding will help do.

This grant money will support women and families in Arkansas, and it will help build a culture of life in our state. That’s something to celebrate.

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