State Board of Health Rules Arkansas Abortion Clinics Violated State Law

Abortion, , , ,

Yesterday Arkansas’ State Board of Health determined Planned Parenthood clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville and a surgical abortion clinic in Little Rock all violated a state informed-consent law earlier this year.

In 2015 the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 1086 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs).

At the time, Act 1086 arguably was the best informed-consent law in the nation. It made sure women inquiring about abortion received all the facts — including information about abortion’s consequences, risks, and alternatives.

Act 1086 also required abortion clinics to give women at least 48 hours to consider their options before having an abortion, and it prohibited abortionists from charging women for the abortion and any related procedures before the end of that 48-hour period.

This law was strengthened in 2017 by Act 383.

These laws ensure women seeking an abortion have the right to change their minds during the 48-hour reflection period and that abortion facilities cannot make a woman feel financially obligated to go through with an abortion by charging her for everything upfront.

Most importantly, the state’s informed-consent law is saving lives.

Since 2015, more than 700 unborn children have been saved from abortion by this state law.

Giving women all the facts about abortion and its alternatives and providing them with enough time to consider their options empowers women to choose something besides abortion. Today more than 700 toddlers are alive in Arkansas because of Act 1086 and Act 383.

However, inspectors from the Arkansas Department of Health determined earlier this year that three abortion facilities violated provisions of Arkansas’ informed-consent law.

According to documents we obtained, on March 13, 2018, Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services received official statements from the Arkansas Department of Health citing the clinics for charging women for some of the procedures related to abortion — like the woman’s initial appointment at the abortion facility — before the end of the 48-hour reflection period.

Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville perform chemical abortions while Little Rock Family Planning Services performs both chemical and surgical abortions.

The abortion facilities challenged the Health Department’s authority to cite the clinics. In their complaints filed with the State Board of Health, Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services argued that it is unconstitutional and unlawful to prohibit them from charging women before the end of the 48-hour reflection period. However, similar laws are on the books in Missouri.

After several months of procedural work, the State Board of Health declared this week that the Health Department was correct in issuing the Statement of Deficiencies against the abortion clinics, and that the clinics violated state law.

Aside from the fact that three abortion facilities were caught violating a very clear state law, all of this is significant in part because it could lead Arkansas to another big, pro-life victory in court. Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning Services have lost their fight with the State Board of Health. If they want to challenge the law now, they’ll have to take their case to court. Courts have generally upheld informed-consent laws like Arkansas’. If the abortion facilities decide to file a lawsuit to have part of Arkansas’ informed-consent law struck down, we could get yet another good, pro-life ruling.

Of course, if the abortion clinics decide not to challenge the law in court, that’s a victory as well, because that means the law will stay on the books and they will have to follow it.

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New Federal Memo Could Roll Back Some Radical LGBT Policies

Transgender,

Last week the New York Times triggered outrage and hysteria on the part of LGBT activists by publishing a column claiming a Trump Administration memo “would essentially eradicate federal recognition” of transgender people.

To put it plainly, the New York Times got this one wrong.

The administration simply is looking to undo some of the extreme policies that the Obama Administration implemented during President Obama’s second term in office.

According to the Times, the new federal Department of Health and Human services memo instructs government agencies to define “sex” as “a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.” That’s a major shift from the Obama Administration’s decision to define “sex” as a person’s self-identified gender identity.

You may recall in May of 2016 the Obama Administration issued “guidelines” instructing schools that receive federal tax dollars — in other words, virtually every public school and most colleges and universities — to let male students who claim to be female use the women’s locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and similar facilities on campus, and vice versa.

The administration also told colleges that men had to be housed in women’s dormitories if they claim to be female, and vice versa.

The Obama Administration did all of this unilaterally, without going through Congress or following the proper channels for changing federal rules and regulations.

Needless to say a lot of people pushed back against the Obama Administration’s radical “guidelines.” Arkansas and several other states actually sued the administration.

Since 2017 the Trump Administration gradually has rolled back many of these policies. This latest memo is simply another step in that process.

As John Stonestreet writes at Breakpoint,

When Congress passed Title IX in 1972, it never anticipated that the word “sex” would be applied to include “gender preference.” But after numerous failed attempts to align federal anti-discrimination laws like Title IX with the new sexual orthodoxy, the Obama administration decided to amend the law via a memo.

Of course, that’s not how the constitutional system is supposed to work. Redefining “sex” for the purpose of federal law is the job of Congress, not the Executive Branch.

All that’s being proposed here . . . is a reversal of extra-constitutional lawlessness.

Besides being lawless, the Obama Administration’s irresponsible policies threatened people’s safety and privacy.  Giving men an excuse to loiter in or around women’s restrooms, showers, and changing areas is a bad idea.

Earlier this month we learned the federal government has opened an investigation into whether or not a kindergartner in Georgia was sexually assaulted because of the Obama Administration’s transgender policies. Last year men in New Jersey and Idaho were arrested for allegedly filming women in fitting rooms at Target stores.

In light of all of this, changing the Obama Administration’s radical policies on gender identity sounds like a good idea to me.

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Planned Parenthood Asks Judge to Pause Lawsuit Against Pro-Life Policy

Abortion, , ,

Last week Planned Parenthood asked a federal judge in Little Rock to temporarily pause the group’s lawsuit over the state’s decision to quit giving Medicaid money to the abortion provider.

In 2015 Governor Hutchinson ordered the state to stop providing Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics after a series of undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs and tissue harvested from aborted babies.

Planned Parenthood sued the state, and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in Little Rock ruled Arkansas had to give Medicaid money to the abortion provider.

However, a federal panel of judges at the Eighth Circuit disagreed, and overturned Judge Baker’s bad ruling last  year. Arkansas officially quit giving Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood in November of 2017.

In January we learned that Planned Parenthood was making a second run at the lawsuit, asking Judge Baker once again to require the state to give the group Medicaid money. Now it seems they want to put that lawsuit on hold.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writes that last week attorneys for Planned Parenthood asked U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker to halt the lawsuit temporarily while similar lawsuits play out in Kansas and Louisiana.

The Fifth Circuit and Tenth Circuit — which preside over Louisiana and Kansas respectively — have generally ruled that states cannot cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. Those decisions are being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood is asking Judge Baker to halt the lawsuit in Arkansas temporarily while the Louisiana and Kansas cases play out in federal court.

It sounds like Planned Parenthood is afraid of losing in court in Arkansas. They already lost once at the Eighth Circuit, and they know there’s a good possibility they will lose a second time.

If the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rules Arkansas can stop giving Medicaid money to abortionists, that may increase the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case and rule against Planned Parenthood as well.

Arkansas is winning the fight to protect the unborn. Our abortion numbers are at historic lows, and our legislature has passed dozens of good, pro-life laws. The fact that Planned Parenthood wants to put its own lawsuit temporarily on hold seems to signal that they’ve been knocked on their heels in Arkansas.

Photo Credit: By jordanuhl7 [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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