Planned Parenthood Spends Millions to Export Abortion Across State Lines: Report

Above: Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility in Southeast Kansas performs abortions primarily on women from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Planned Parenthood’s affiliates spent $3.4 million helping women travel for abortion last year, according to a new report from the organization.

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider. Nationwide, its facilities aborted more than 400,000 unborn children last year.

Planned Parenthood’s annual report for 2024 brags that its affiliates spent $3.4 million helping more than 12,500 women travel for abortion under its “patient navigation program.”

Planned Parenthood’s regional affiliate owns facilities in Little Rock and Rogers. However, Arkansas’ good, pro-life laws generally prevent those facilities from performing abortions.

But last summer, Family Council learned Planned Parenthood had secretly acquired a facility in Pittsburg, Kansas — a small town within driving distance of Northwest Arkansas.

The new location in Southeast Kansas opened in August. At the time, Family Council and others expressed concerns that the facility would make it easier for Planned Parenthood to promote abortions regionally to women in states that all have very strong, pro-life laws.

Since then, news outlets have confirmed this new Planned Parenthood facility primarily performs abortions on women from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Abortion hurts women, and it ends the lives of unborn children. Its risks and its consequences are deathly serious.

Women and families deserve better than abortion. It’s important to prohibit abortion through legislation, but we need to work to eliminate the demand for abortion as well.

One way Arkansans can do that is by supporting pro-life organizations that empower women with real options besides abortion.

Arkansas is home to more than 60 organizations that assist pregnant women — including some 45 pregnancy resource centers that help women with unplanned pregnancies.

The State of Arkansas recently voted to award $2 million in grants to pregnancy-help organizations for the 2025-2026 budget cycle.

That money is going to help a lot of women and children in the coming months — and hopefully it will encourage women not to travel to Planned Parenthood facilities in other states for abortions.

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

Here is What Public School Students Learn in Elective Bible Courses

Recently, we have written about how Arkansas law lets public schools offer elective, academic courses on the Bible — and how enrollment in these courses has grown this year.

In 2013 Arkansas passed Act 1440 letting public schools offer elective, academic courses that study “the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture, and politics.”

The law says the course must be objective and nonsectarian, and it must meet the same academic standards as other elective courses offered in public schools. Anyone wishing to teach the course must be licensed to teach in the State of Arkansas. In 2019, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 1016 making technical clarifications to Act 1440 of 2013.

The Arkansas Department of Education’s academic framework provides an outline for these classes and what students learn from them.

Under the framework, the academic study of the Bible is a one-semester English elective course.

Students learn about the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, and culture.

As part of the course, students demonstrate “an understanding of narratives, poetry, and epistles contained in the Bible and how these biblical genres have influenced literature, art, and music.”

Students are also expected to:

  • Recognize the variety of literary devices in biblical text;
  • Identify major characters of the Bible;
  • Identify themes expressed in the Bible, making comparisons with modern society today;
  • Analyze poetry and songs of the Bible, making comparisons with modern poetry and music;
  • Compare different translations of the Bible;
  • Analyze the influence of the Bible on art and literary works;
  • Examine the influence of the Bible on historical and modern day political and social movements;
  • Analyze the Bible’s influence on the creation of American institutions and law.

The academic framework also notes that the Bible courses must be taught objectively.

This year lawmakers passed Act 400, the Religious Rights at Public School Act by Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs). This good law affirms public school students’ and teachers’ religious liberties, and it highlights the freedom that schools have to offer academic courses on the Bible under state law.

It’s good that Arkansas’ students have the opportunity to enroll in academic courses on the Bible. After all, no single book has been more influential on our civilization.

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