Arkansas’ 2025 Legislative Session Adjourns

Legislation,

On Monday the Arkansas House and Senate met to tie up loose ends and officially adjourn the 2025 legislative session.

Lawmakers passed several excellent bills this year. You can learn more about those new laws by downloading our 2025 General Assembly Report here.

You can also read our May edition of the Arkansas Citizen for a brief recap of the session’s highlights.

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

READ MORE

Planned Parenthood PAC Files Activity Report, Opposes Good Legislation in Arkansas

Legislation,

Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood’s political action committee for Arkansas filed a report with the secretary of state showing the organization did not spend any money campaigning in Arkansas from January through March of this year.

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortionist. In 2024, the organization endorsed two candidates running for the Arkansas House of Representatives. In 2020, Planned Parenthood Federation announced it would spend at least $45 million working to unseat pro-life lawmakers and elect candidates who support abortion. As part of that plan, the group used its political action committee (PAC) to support candidates for state and federal office in Arkansas.

With that said, Planned Parenthood’s Arkansas PAC spent no money campaigning in Arkansas during the first quarter of 2025. However, the organization did actively oppose good bills at the legislature.

In a document published online, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes Arkansas made statements against S.B. 444 and H.B. 1678 — two bills Family Council strongly supported.

S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) is a good law that strengthens the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021.

Among other things, this law adds whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and it helps protect all medical professionals from having their rights of conscience violated.

S.B. 444 passed with strong support at the Arkansas Legislature and has been signed into law as Act 970 of 2025.

H.B. 1678 is a good bill by Rep. Wayne Long (R — Bradford) and Sen. John Payton (R — Wilburn) that would strengthen Arkansas’ Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act.

The bill would have increased the penalty for selling or prescribing illegal abortion-inducing drugs, and it would have made it easier to take a person to court for violating the Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act.

All of this would have provided additional options for enforcing Arkansas’ pro-life laws.

H.B. 1678 did not come up for a vote at the legislature, but lawmakers did refer it for interim study — meaning the legislature will have opportunities to meet and discuss the bill, but will not vote on it.

On the whole, Arkansas’ lawmakers are very pro-life, and Planned Parenthood’s opposition did not stop legislators from passing S.B. 444 or choosing to continue discussions on H.B. 1678.

Planned Parenthood’s PAC has a little over $11,500 at its disposal for the 2026 election cycle. Time will tell what role the organization might play in Arkansas in the coming months.

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

READ MORE

Governor Signs Budget Measure Providing $2M for Moms in Need

Abortion, , , ,

Last week Gov. Sanders signed a measure budgeting $2 million for grant funding to charities that help women with unplanned pregnancies.

H.B. 1202 by the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee provides $2 million in funding for grants to pregnancy help organizations.

Under H.B. 1202, grant money can go to pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and other charitable organizations that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

The State of Arkansas also can award funding to charities 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 food banks, food pantries, and food distribution centers.

The measure makes it clear that grant money will not go to abortionists or their affiliates.

Since 2022 Family Council has worked with the Arkansas Legislature and the governor to secure funding every year for pregnancy resource centers. These state-funded grants have helped support dozens of charities that assist women and children in Arkansas.

The grants are optional. Pregnancy resource centers are not required to accept public tax dollars if they do not want to. But for those who do receive grant money, the funding may make a tremendous difference.

Pro-lifers in Arkansas have worked hard to prohibit abortion. We need to work to make abortion irrelevant and unthinkable as well. Supporting pregnancy resource centers is one way we can do that.

Pregnancy resource centers give women real options besides abortion — making it less likely they will travel out of state for abortion or order illegal abortion drugs online.

With the governor’s signature, H.B. 1202 is now Act 1006 of 2025.

We want to recognize the Arkansas Legislature for proposing and passing this good law, and we want to thank the governor for signing it.

Act 1006 means Arkansas will be able to continue providing real support to women and families. That is something to celebrate!

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

READ MORE