Arkansas Gets Three Pro-Life Safe Haven Baby Boxes in a Week

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Since Sunday, communities in Arkansas have unveiled three new pro-life Safe Haven Baby Boxes — meaning Arkansas now has a total of eight Safe Haven Baby Boxes statewide.

Arkansas’ Safe Haven Act of 2001 lets a woman surrender her newborn baby to law enforcement, medical personnel, and first responders. The law gives women with unplanned pregnancies an option besides abortion.

Similar laws are on the books in all 50 states.

Safe Haven Baby Boxes installed at fire stations let women surrender an infant safely and anonymously using a specialized, hospital-grade bassinet designed to keep the baby secure while a silent alarm notifies first responders inside the fire station that the baby is there.

On Sunday pro-lifers blessed Arkansas’ sixth Safe Haven Baby Box at Maumelle’s Fire Station 1.

The seventh box was installed on Monday at Fire Station 11 in Fort Smith.

And an eighth box was unveiled Tuesday morning at Fire Station 2 in El Dorado.

Since June of 2019, Arkansas Right to Life has promoted Arkansas’ Safe Haven Act and the Safe Haven Baby Boxes through a billboard campaign.

So far, billboards have been placed in 23 counties across Arkansas. Right to Life’s goal is to place billboards in all 75 counties in the state.

Safe Haven Baby Boxes are amazing pieces of pro-life technology. It’s good to see communities continue to install them in Arkansans.

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Arkansas Leads The Nation In New Abortion Restrictions: Guttmacher Institute

Abortion

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reports that states across America have passed a total of 106 new restrictions on abortion so far this year.

Leading the nation is Arkansas, which according to Guttmacher, has enacted 20 anti-abortion policies since January.

As Family Council previously reported, the Arkansas Legislature approved a record number of pro-life laws last spring.

These new laws could save thousands of women and unborn children from abortion for years to come. That’s something to celebrate.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, Oklahoma, Indiana, Montana and South Dakota have passed several pro-life measures this year — and other states have as well.

Some of Arkansas’ new pro-life laws are currently being litigated in federal court. Those lawsuits could lead to landmark, pro-life victories that may pave the way for Arkansas and other states to pass future legislation protecting women and children from abortion.

Pro-abortion groups rallied in Arkansas last weekend — but so did pro-lifers who are participating in 40 Days for Life and the annual Life Chain in Arkansas.

Planned Parenthood operates an abortion facility in Little Rock, and the group wants to perform abortions at its newest center in Rogers — but pro-lifers are opening pregnancy resource centers next door to both facilities.

And let’s not forget that abortion in Arkansas has been in decline since the 1990s.

As of 2020, Arkansas’ abortion numbers remain near historic lows, and public opinion polling shows most Arkansans believe abortion ought to be completely illegal or legal only under certain circumstances.

Slowly but surely, we’re winning the fight to protect innocent human life in Arkansas.

Photo Credit: American Life League, CC BY-NC 2.0, via Flickr.com. No changes were made to the image.

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Circuit Court Won’t Decide Arkansas’ Abortion Ban Until After SCOTUS Rules on Mississippi Law

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Earlier this month the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals quietly announced it would wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before considering the lawsuit over Arkansas’ new law that generally prevents abortion.

Act 309 of 2021 by Sen. Jason Rapert (R – Conway) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) prohibits abortion in Arkansas, except in cases when the mother’s life is in jeopardy. If enforced, this good law would save thousands of unborn children from abortion every year.

Act 309 was slated to take effect on July 28. However, the ACLU filed a lawsuit over Act 309, and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker blocked the law just days before it was set to take effect.

In August, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge appealed Judge Baker’s decision to the Eighth Circuit.

However, earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.

That case deals with a law Mississippi passed in 2018 generally prohibiting abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. Last May the ACLU dubbed Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health the “case that could decimate the constitutional right to abortion.”

In light of the fact that the court’s ruling on Mississippi’s pro-life law could affect pro-life legislation everywhere — including Arkansas — the Eighth Circuit has opted not to do anything with Arkansas’ Act 309 until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision.

Regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Mississippi’s case, Arkansas has an opportunity to see decades of bad abortion rulings overturned or reinterpreted in a pro-life way.

Arkansas and other states have passed a record-setting number of pro-life laws this year.

Most of those laws have gone unchallenged, and they are saving the lives of unborn children in Arkansas right now.

Slowly but surely we are winning the fight against abortion.

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