Pro-Life Efforts in Arkansas Hit a Milestone

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Above: Leaders in Haynes, Arkansas passed a pro-life resolution on August 11, 2026. To date, every city and town in Lee County has passed pro-life resolutions, and the county quorum court has adopted a pro-life resolution as well.

Back in 2021, I received a call from someone in eastern Arkansas who felt called to do something impactful in her community.

Ronni Schwantz, someone who had been pro-life her entire life, was on the other end of the phone asking questions on how to pass a pro-life resolution in Lee County, Arkansas. She was ready to put her pro-life stance into action. The time was right because the legislature had just passed a law affirming the right of municipalities to adopt resolutions declaring themselves to be pro-life. In response to that law, Family Council put together a comprehensive toolkit to help guide individuals and communities in understanding how to pass pro-life resolutions. Ronni took the toolkit and initiated a push to affirm Lee County and all its cities and towns as pro-life. 

What started as an introductory conversation over the phone turned into years’ worth of effort to affirm Lee County and many other counties and cities as pro-life. Ronni partnered with local pastors, mayors, and elected officials. In 2021, Marianna became the second pro-life city in Arkansas, the first to pass a resolution after the 2021 law passed. Lee County soon followed, and the quorum court passed a pro-life resolution on October 26, 2021.

In the meantime, Ronni not only championed the passage of pro-life resolutions, but she also worked to bring a Safe Haven Baby box to St. Francis County and successfully ran for office to become a Justice of the Peace. Once she started, no setback was going to stop her.

Above: In 2021, Ronni (left) worked with leaders from Moro, Arkansas, to pass a resolution affirming the community is pro-life.

Five years later, Ronni called me once again. On August 11, 2026, the final city in Lee County, Haynes, passed a pro-life resolution. This made Lee County the first county in Arkansas – and I would dare say the nation – to be 100% pro-life. This milestone was a testament to the goodness of God and the faithful laboring of people like Ronni Schwantz.

Pro-life resolutions are an incredible way for local pro-lifers to promote and espouse a culture of life. The annual ranking by Americans United for Life indicates Arkansas’ pro-life stance along with the twenty-five counties and seventeen cities and towns who have passed pro-life resolutions since 2021. Arkansas has seen many attacks on the sanctity of life, but because of the efforts of countless pro-life Arkansans like Ronni, there is great hope for a future that honors the sanctity of every life.

Erin Hogan has worked with Family Council since January of 2019, where she serves as Director of Government Relations.

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Family Council Joins Letter Urging DOJ to Stop Mail-Order Abortion Drugs

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On Friday, Family Council joined a coalition of conservative leaders in a letter urging the U.S. Department of Justice to stop abortion drugs from being delivered illegally through the mail.

Arkansas law generally prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother, and it is a crime for an abortionist to mail abortion drugs like RU-486 into the state. But under President Biden, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened its safety protocols to allow mail-order abortion drugs.

Pro-abortion states have also enacted “shield laws” for abortionists who mail abortion drugs into states like Arkansas. To make matters worse, the U.S. Department of Justice has also opposed federal lawsuits from pro-lifers who want to stop mail-order abortion.

All of this has created a dangerous industry of abortion-by-mail both in Arkansas and across the nation.

The federal Comstock Act says that the U.S. Postal Service may not deliver any “article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” On August 7, Family Council joined 34 other pro-life and conservative leaders in a letter urging Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce the Comstock Act as it is written and stop abortion pills from being delivered illegally through the mail.

Family Council has been pleased to work with our friends in Arkansas and around the nation this year to oppose abortion pills.

In May, Family Council sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas respectfully asking the office to enforce federal law as it applies to mail-order abortion drugs.

In June, Family Council joined a coalition of 83 state and national pro-life leaders urging acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to stop mail-order abortion drugs.

Family Council also has launched a grassroots effort in Arkansas calling on Congress and the Trump administration to end former President Biden’s dangerous mail-order abortion policies. Pro-lifers can learn about that grassroots effort at abortioncrimebymail.com.

We have also partnered with pro-life organizations in an amicus brief asking a federal court to block mail-order abortion drugs nationwide.

Abortion drugs are dangerous. Research from the Ethics and Public Policy Center shows 11% of women experience serious health complications from abortion pills — including sepsis, infection, and life-threatening hemorrhage.

These drugs hurt women, and they kill unborn children. The U.S. Department of Justice needs to recognize these facts and enforce laws like the Comstock Act that are designed to protect Americans from mail-order abortion.

Pro-lifers can ask their members of Congress to oppose mail-order abortion by going to abortioncrimebymail.com.

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

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Lee County Another Step Closer to Being 100% Pro-Life

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Lee County in east Arkansas is one step closer to being the state’s first county to become 100% Pro-Life.

In 2021, the Lee County Quorum Court declared itself a Pro-Life County, and since then nearly every incorporated city and town in the county has passed Pro-Life resolutions as well.

In June, the City of Rondo became the latest community in Lee County to pass a resolution affirming that it is Pro-Life.

This really is something worth celebrating.

In 2021 the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 392 affirming that cities and counties can designate themselves as Pro-Life. Two years later lawmakers passed Act 699 by Sen. Joshua Bryant (R – Rogers) and Rep. Kendon Underwood (R – Cave Springs) expanding the law and letting other political subdivisions of the state pass Pro-Life resolutions as well. 

To date, about half of all Arkansans live in a Pro-Life City or Pro-Life County.

The pro-life landscape in Arkansas is very different today from 2021, when lawmakers passed Act 392.

Today, Arkansas law generally prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother, and it is a crime for an abortionist to mail abortion drugs like RU-486 into the state.

But under President Biden, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened its safety protocols to allow mail-order abortion drugs. Pro-abortion states have also enacted “shield laws” protecting abortionists who mail abortion drugs into states like Arkansas.

To make matters worse, the U.S. Department of Justice has opposed federal court cases from pro-lifers who want to stop mail-order abortion.

Americans do not support mail-order abortion drugs. Polling data shows seven in ten likely voters support the in-person doctor’s visit requirement for abortion pills.

In June, Family Council launched a grassroots effort in Arkansas calling on the Trump administration to end former President Joe Biden’s dangerous mail-order abortion policies. Pro-lifers can contact their congressmen by visiting abortioncrimebymail.com.

Pro-lifers must continue standing against abortion. We can do that through public policy work — like contacting elected leaders in Congress and elsewhere about abortion drugs. We can also do that by building a culture of life at the local level — such as by passing resolutions affirming our communities are Pro-Life.

Family Council has created a free toolkit to help pro-lifers who are interested in passing a pro-life resolution in their communities. You can be a part of this growing movement and help your community pass a pro-life resolution!

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers. This article has been updated to reflect that fact that at least one incorporated community in Lee County has not yet passed a pro-life resolution.

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