A Quick Update on the Legislature

A lot is happening at the Arkansas Legislature. Here’s a quick look at some of the bills that have been filed and passed so far — including good bills, bad bills, and a few bills that simply are worth knowing about.

GOOD BILLS PASSED

S.B. 149 (Abortion): This good bill by Sen. Jason Rapert (R – Conway) prohibits abortion in Arkansas if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. Read The Bill Here.

S.B. 156 (Free Speech): This good bill by Sen. Bob Ballinger (R – Berryville) and Rep. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) prevents public colleges and universities from infringing the free speech of students and faculty on campus. Read The Bill Here.

S.B. 168 (Pro-Life): This good bill by Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R – Rogers) updates Arkansas’ Safe Haven Act. It lets a woman surrender her newborn to law enforcement personnel, fire department personnel, or medical personnel. Arkansas’ Safe Haven Act protects children from being abandoned, and it provides women with options besides abortion. Read The Bill Here.

GOOD BILLS FILED

H.B. 1399 (Pro-Life): This good bill by Rep. Karilyn Brown (R – Sherwood) prohibits public funds from being used to clone or kill unborn children for scientific research. Read The Bill Here.

H.B. 1439 (Abortion): This good bill by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R – Elm Springs) and Sen. Jason Rapert (R – Conway) prohibits abortion in Arkansas after the eighteenth week of pregnancy unless the mother’s life or physical health is in serious jeopardy. Read the Bill Here.

H.B. 1453 (Abortion): This good bill by Rep. Clint Penzo (R – Springdale) and Sen. Kim Hammer (R – Benton) requires abortionists to give women information about perinatal hospice. Modern medicine has made it possible to test unborn children for deadly fetal abnormalities, and many children who test positive for these abnormalities are aborted. H.B. 1453 will help women choose options besides abortion in these situations. Read The Bill Here.

S.B. 278 (Abortion): This good bill by Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch) and Rep. Spencer Hawks (R – Conway) contains several regulations and requirements for abortion clinics, and it makes some improvements to Arkansas’ informed-consent law for abortion and Arkansas’ law protecting babies who survive an abortion. Read The Bill Here.

H.B. 1289 (Conscience): This good bill by Rep. Brandt Smith (R – Jonesboro) protects the rights of conscience of all healthcare workers and companies. This will prevent people and organizations from being forced to promote, participate in, or pay for medical procedures that violate their conscience — like abortion. Read The Bill Here.

S.B. 2 (Abortion): This good bill by Sen. Trent Garner (R – El Dorado) prohibits abortions performed because the baby has Down Syndrome. Read The Bill Here.

S.B. 3 (Abortion): This good bill by Sen. Trent Garner (R – El Dorado) requires abortionist to report complications arising from an abortion. Abortion carries a number of risks and consequences, and the reporting required by this bill will help Arkansas craft bett er pro-life laws in the future. Read The Bill Here.

BAD BILLS FILED

H.B. 1164 and H.B. 1290: These two bills by Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R – Clarksville) let pharmacists dispense oral contraceptives to women without a prescription from a doctor. Oral contraceptives carry a number of health risks — which is why women currently need a prescription from a doctor — and they can cause the death of an unborn child by preventing the unborn child from implanting and growing inside the mother’s womb. That’s why Family Council opposes both of these bills.
Read H.B. 1164 Here
Read H.B. 1290 Here.

H.B. 1150: This bill expands the list of “qualifying conditions” in Arkansas’ marijuana amendment, making it even easier for people to use so-called “medical” marijuana. Marijuana is a blight on our communities, and Arkansas’ marijuana amendment already is too vague and open-ended. Marijuana needs to be restricted — not expanded. Read The Bill Here.

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

You can leave a message about legislation for your state senator by calling the Arkansas Senate during normal business hours at (501) 682-2902.

You can leave a message about legislation for your state representative by calling the Arkansas House during normal business hours at (501) 682-6211.

Committee Passes Bill to Prohibit Public Funding of Research That Kills Unborn Children

Family Council staff member Charisse Dean (left) and Rep. Karilyn Brown (R – Sherwood) present H.B. 1399 in the House Public Health Committee.

This morning the Arkansas House Public Health Committee passed H.B. 1399 by Rep. Karilyn Brown (R – Sherwood).

This good, pro-life bill strengthens our state’s laws against human cloning. It prohibits public funding of human cloning and embryonic stem cell research.

In recent years we’ve seen examples of unethical companies using unborn children for scientific research. H.B. 1399 helps address that issue by ensuring taxpayer dollars won’t be used to create and kill unborn children in the name of science or medicine.

This is a good bill that Family Council supports. Unborn children are not lab material, and state tax dollars should not be used for research that treats them as such.

This good bill will go before the Arkansas House of Representatives, where it likely will be voted on sometime next week.

You can leave a message asking your state representative to support H.B. 1399 by calling the Arkansas House of Representatives during normal business hours at (501) 682-6211.

You can read H.B. 1399 here.

Bill Would Protect Free Speech on Public College Campuses in Arkansas

Today Sen. Bob Ballinger (R – Berryville) and Rep. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) filed S.B. 156, the Forming Open and Robust University Minds (FORUM) Act.

This good bill prevents public colleges and universities from squelching free speech on campus.

In some states students and faculty have faced discipline and discrimination for sharing their faith or expressing their deeply held convictions. In Jonesboro, Arkansas State University adopted policies restricting free speech to roughly 1% of campus and requiring students to obtain approval from university officials before engaging in free speech.

The restrictions prompted a lawsuit against the university. Last fall, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos publicly criticized the university’s restrictions on free speech.

S.B. 156 helps prevent public colleges and universities from imposing these unconstitutional restrictions on students and faculty. It protects students’ rights to peacefully assemble, speak, share literature, and exchange ideas.

It requires public colleges and universities to adopt policies protecting free speech on campus.

S.B. 156 is carefully worded. It does not allow violent speech, riots, harassment, or other unlawful conduct. It equally protects everyone’s right to free speech under the First Amendment.

For several months, Family Council has been working with attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom to bring this good legislation to Arkansas.

We applaud Senator Ballinger and Representative Sullivan for introducing this well-crafted Alliance Defending Freedom model bill.

You can leave a message for your State Senator at 501-682-2902 urging him or her to vote for S.B. 156 the FORUM Act.

You can leave a message for your State Representative at 501-682-6211 urging him or her to do the same.

Please thank the lead sponsors of this bill:

Senator Bob Ballinger: bob.ballinger@senate.ar.gov (870) 350-5175

Representative Dan Sullivan: dan.sullivan@arkansashouse.org (870) 275-2929

This bill could be debated in the Senate Education Committee as early as next week. We plan to keep you posted on its progress.

Photo Credit: “Old Main from the northwest, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas (autumn)” by Brandonrush – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.