Arkansas Supreme Court Continues Considering Arguments in Abortion Amendment Lawsuit
On Friday the Arkansas Attorney General’s office and the group Arkansans for Limited Government both submitted briefs with the Arkansas Supreme Court as part of the lawsuit surrounding a proposed abortion amendment.
The Arkansas Abortion Amendment would change the constitution to prevent the State of Arkansas from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy — which is more extreme than Roe v. Wade and would allow thousands of elective abortions on healthy women and unborn children every year.
The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it does not require abortions to be performed by a physician or in a licensed medical facility.
It automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment — jeopardizing basic abortion regulations like parental-consent and informed-consent requirements.
The measure also contains various exceptions that would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.
Last month, Arkansans for Limited Government submitted petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the ballot. Bringing the amendment up for a vote would require at least 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters.
However, Secretary of State John Thurston disqualified every petition filed to place the abortion measure on the ballot, because the sponsors failed to provide affidavits that state law requires concerning paid petition canvassers.
By law, ballot initiative sponsors must file a statement confirming that each paid canvassers was given a copy of the state’s initiative and referenda handbook as well as an explanation of relevant state laws before he or she solicited petition signatures. The sponsors backing the abortion measure failed to file this specific documentation when they submitted the petitions for the abortion amendment. That prompted the Secretary of State to reject all of the petitions.
Arkansans for Limited Government subsequently filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Thurston.
In its briefs filed Friday, Arkansans for Limited Government reiterated its belief that the group complied with state law and that the Secretary of State’s rejection was unlawful.
The Arkansas Attorney General’s office filed briefs explaining how the abortion group failed to comply with state law, and also provided supplemental evidence on Monday that the Secretary of State did not treat Arkansans for Limited Government differently from other ballot initiative sponsors.
A ruling in the case is expected sometime in the near future.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
Documents Show This May Be Planned Parenthood’s New Regional Abortion Facility Near Arkansas
Family Council has obtained documents possibly revealing the location of Planned Parenthood’s new regional abortion facility in Pittsburg, Kansas.
On May 14, Planned Parenthood Great Plains announced it intends to place an abortion facility in Pittsburg — near the state lines with Missouri and Oklahoma. The facility reportedly will perform chemical abortions.
Even though Pittsburg is in Kansas, the town is situated less than 90 minutes from Arkansas. If Planned Parenthood opens the facility this fall, it will be the closest abortion center to Northwest Arkansas, Southwest Missouri, and Northeast Oklahoma.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains — the regional affiliate responsible for Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas — has been working to hire staff for the Pittsburg facility, but has not announced the exact location of the new abortion facility or the date that the facility will open.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains’ 990 tax form for 2022 lists multiple Related Organizations and Unrelated Partnerships — including Kansas Property Investment LLC located in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Southeast Kansas Property Investment LLC located in Overland Park, Kansas.
The 990 form lists Planned Parenthood as the “direct controlling entity” of Kansas Property Investment, which is listed as the direct controlling entity of Southeast Kansas Property Investment.
Information from the Crawford County Kansas assessor’s website shows Southeast KS Property Investment LLC owns a 3,180 square foot medical office building at 2310 Tucker Terrace in Pittsburg, Kansas. The mailing address for Southeast KS Property Investment LLC matches the Little Rock address for Kansas Property Investment listed on Planned Parenthood Great Plains’ 990 tax form.
Other documents indicate the property was purchased for $380,000 in 2023, and that the city issued a permit for remodeling construction valued at $200,000 for the health center earlier this year.
All of this would seem to indicate that Planned Parenthood is tied to Southeast KS Property Investment LLC — and to the facility in Pittsburg.
Because the facility is a former medical clinic and has apparently been remodeled as a health center, it stands to reason that this location could serve as an abortion facility.
Planned Parenthood has a history of acquiring some of its facilities through separate LLCs.
For example, in 2020 Planned Parenthood acquired a facility in Rogers, Arkansas, through 12 Redacre LLC. The LLC’s mailing address matched Planned Parenthood Great Plains’ mailing address in Kansas — signaling a connection between the two.
In 2021, American Life League wrote,
The first highly publicized case of Planned Parenthood sneaking into a community using a false identity to purchase, build/renovate a property, and get needed permits, took place in Aurora Illinois in 2007. Since then, Planned Parenthood has used this technique many times to thwart any efforts by Planned Parenthood’s opponents to stop it from opening. It has become standard operating procedure for the nation’s largest abortion chain.
Official reports show some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in Kansas during 2022. Right now, abortion facilities in Kansas are primarily concentrated in the northeast and central areas of the state. Opening a facility in southeast Kansas — near the borders with Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri — could make it easier for Planned Parenthood to promote abortion to women from out-of-state.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.