Springdale Passes Resolution, Declares Itself Pro-Life City

Abortion, , ,

On Tuesday, the Springdale, Arkansas, City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution affirming its commitment to life and designating itself as a pro-life city.

The resolution reads in part

[W]e are granted inalienable rights by our Creator, among them being life . . . [Denying] the right to life of a created being is to deny liberty, the pursuit of happiness and all other unalienable rights;

The resolution makes Springdale the first official pro-life city in Arkansas. Hopefully other cities will follow Springdale’s lead.

The resolution comes as Planned Parenthood looks for a new location in Northwest Arkansas.

The abortion giant closed its facility in Fayetteville in July after its landlord reportedly chose not to renew the group’s lease. Rumors have circulated that Planned Parenthood could reopen at a location in Springdale or another community in the area.

The resolution can’t stop Planned Parenthood from opening an abortion clinic in Springdale, but it does send a strong message about where the city’s elected officials stand.

In the meantime, Planned Parenthood isn’t performing any abortions in Northwest Arkansas. That’s always a good thing.

Read Springdale’s good, pro-life resolution here.

READ MORE

One in Five Arkansans Believes Abortion Ought to Be Illegal: Poll

Abortion, , ,

Yesterday the Public Religion Research Institute released the results of a survey on support for abortion in the U.S.

The group surveyed Americans in every state. Not surprisingly, pollsters found Arkansans are overwhelmingly pro-life.

The survey found one in five Arkansans (21%) believes abortion ought to be completely illegal — one of the highest percentages of any state in the nation.

Last October the University of Arkansas conducted a poll that found 17% of Arkansans believe abortion ought to be completely illegal. Another 58% said abortion ought to be legal only under certain circumstances.

Gallup released a poll last June showing 60% of Americans believe abortion should be either illegal or legal only under a few circumstances.

Americans oppose abortion on demand, and a striking number agree that abortion ought to be completely illegal. With that in mind, it makes sense that legislatures around the nation would pass laws restricting and prohibiting abortion — and the Arkansas Legislature is no exception.

This year, Arkansas passed several good, pro-life laws, including:

  • Act 180 / S.B. 149 prohibiting abortion in Arkansas if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
  • Act 493 / H.B. 1439 prohibiting abortion in Arkansas after the eighteenth week of pregnancy.
  • Act 700 / S.B. 448 requiring an abortionist to be board-certified or board-eligible OB/GYN.
  • Act 801/S.B. 278 expanding the waiting period for an abortion from 48 to 72 hours.
  • H.B. 1453 requiring abortionists to give women information about perinatal palliative care.
  • Act 522 / S.B. 341 ensuring women know how to find information about abortion pill reversal.
  • Act 619/S.B. 2 prohibiting abortions performed because the baby has Down Syndrome.
  • Act 620/S.B. 3 requiring abortionist to report complications arising from an abortion.
  • H.B. 1856 prohibiting the use of public funds to perform an abortion on a woman in state custody.
  • Act 653/H.B. 1399 prohibiting public funds from being used to clone or kill unborn children.
  • Act 185 / S.B. 168 updating and improving Arkansas’ pro-life Safe Haven Act.

You can read about these laws and others in our update letter from last spring.

In the political arena and the public arena, Arkansas is leading the way when it comes to protecting innocent human life.

READ MORE

Scientists Monkeying With Human/Animal Hybrid Research

Bioethics,

American scientists — this time working in China — reportedly are once again experimenting with human/animal hybrids.

John Stonestreet with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview writes,

Free from those pesky regulations that protect human rights and ensure ethical research practice, the scientists injected human stem cells into monkey embryos. Their hope, they say, is to grow organs like kidneys and livers made up entirely of human cells, which could be used for transplants. Ah yes, that whole “trust us, we’re helping you” trope.

As one California scientist told the MIT Technology Review, the experiments make no sense. Such organs would be “too small” and take “too long to develop.” Perhaps, he continued, “the researchers have more basic scientific questions in mind,” such as addressing questions of “interspecies barriers.”

While stories about this kind of bizarre research sound like the stuff of science fiction and fake news, they actually are well documented and have been going on for years.

During the Obama Administration, the National Institutes for Health announced plans to scrap a policy that prevented funding from going to research that hybridized human beings and animals.

At the time, some scientists in the U.S. were injecting pig embryos with human stem cells, and the NIH was interested in supporting that type of research.

Needless to say, pro-life groups raised a number of ethical concerns about the NIH’s proposed rule change.

You would think it would be obvious to the scientific community that the earth doesn’t need half-human, half-animal creatures. Apparently that is not the case.

READ MORE