Legislation Would Provide $2M for Pregnancy Help Organizations, Address Maternal Health in Arkansas

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The Arkansas Legislature’s 2024 fiscal session is underway, and lawmakers are busy considering budget measures.

On Thursday Sen. John Payton (R – Wilburn) filed S.B. 64 providing $2 million in state funding for pregnancy help organizations that promote maternal health and provide women with options besides abortion. If passed, the measure would provide increased funding for organizations that help women and families.

 In 2022 Family Council worked with the legislature and the governor to secure $1 million for pregnancy centers. This funding provided grants to more than 20 pregnancy help organizations. Last year we worked with lawmakers to renew this funding. This grant money has gone to good organizations across the state that give women and families real assistance when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

S.B. 64 would make improvements to the grant program. It would increase state funding from $1 million per year to $2 million. This would put Arkansas’ funding on parr with other states’.

The bill also clarifies that “pregnancy help organizations” include nonprofit organizations that promote infant and maternal wellness and reduce infant and maternal mortality by:

  • Providing nutritional information and/or nutritional counseling;
  • Providing prenatal vitamins;
  • Providing a list of prenatal medical care options;
  • Providing social, emotional, and/or material support; or
  • Providing referrals for WIC and community-based nutritional services, including but not limited to food banks, food pantries, and food distribution centers.

The measure includes language preventing state funds from going to abortionists and their affiliates.

Now that abortion is prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother, we need to support women and families with unplanned pregnancies, and we need to promote infant and maternal wellness. This grant funding  does that.

It provides women in Arkansas with actual, pro-life options and support — meaning they are less likely to travel out of state for abortion. And it helps fund pro-life organizations who are promoting infant and maternal wellness in Arkansas.

More than 50 pregnancy help organizations serve thousands of women in Arkansas. S.B. 64 would enable them to do even more in our state.

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

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Countries are Authorizing Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide for Young Adults Who Are Not Terminally Ill

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Recent headlines highlight how countries are authorizing assisted suicide and euthanasia for young adults who are not terminally ill.

For example, last month a judge authorized a 27-year-old woman in Canada to end her life under the country’s assisted suicide laws. The woman does not suffer from a terminal ailment. She simply has autism.

However, the Canadian court ruled that preventing her “medically assisted death [suicide]” would cause her to suffer “irreparable harm.”

In other words, the court ruled that for this woman with autism dying would somehow be less harmful than living.

In Netherlands, a 28-year-old Dutch woman was recently approved for euthanasia because she is “hobbled by her depression and autism and borderline personality disorder.”

In 2022 a staggering one out of every 20 deaths in Netherlands and one out of every 25 deaths in Canada were the result of the countries’ euthanasia and assisted suicide laws.

Healthcare professionals in Canada have even been told they have a professional obligation to mention assisted suicide to any patients considered “eligible.”

Last month Oregon — one of the first states to legalize assisted suicide — released its annual “Death With Dignity Act” reports for 2023.

The reports found that last year doctors in Oregon wrote 560 lethal prescriptions under the assisted suicide law.

Out of those 560 patients in Oregon, only three were referred for psychological or psychiatric evaluation.

It’s a sobering statistic, given that the overwhelming majority of these people told doctors that their chief end-of-life concerns were losing their autonomy or being less able to engage in activities they enjoyed.

Oregon passed a law last year letting non-residents end their lives under the state’s assisted-suicide law — meaning these numbers are liable to grow in the future.

Patients who are lonely, depressed, or feel like they are losing control over their lives need counseling and support — not a prescription for lethal drugs.

Assisted-suicide actually robs patients of compassionate care.

Being pro-life means believing human life is sacred from conception until natural death, and it means opposing the taking of human life without just cause.

That’s part of the reason why in Family Council helped defeat a very bad bill in 2019 to let doctors prescribe lethal drugs to patients in Arkansas and two bad pieces of end-of-life legislation in 2021. These were flawed pieces of legislation that fundamentally disrespected the sanctity of innocent human life.

Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted-suicide are murder, and they violate the sanctity of human life.

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

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Arkansas Lawmakers Filing Budget Measures Ahead of April 10 Fiscal Session

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This week Arkansas Legislators have filed several appropriation measures ahead of the April 10 fiscal session.

The legislature will convene next week to set the state’s budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year.

To date, lawmakers have filed about 90 bills appropriating state funds for various government agencies.

One of our goals for the 2024 budget session is to secure an appropriation that will provide funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the state.

 In 2022 we worked with the legislature and the governor to secure $1 million in funding for pregnancy centers. We did the same thing last year as well.

This funding has gone to good organizations across the state that give women and families real assistance when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

Since the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade, state legislatures around the country have ramped up state funding for pregnancy help organizations, and Arkansas risks lagging behind other states if we don’t provide adequate funding for these organizations.

More than 50 pregnancy help organizations serve thousands of women in Arkansas. Providing them with assistance from state-funded grants enables them to do even more in our state.

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

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