Two Bills Filed to Strengthen Rights of Conscience in Arkansas

Legislation, , ,

Two bills filed at the Arkansas Legislature would help strengthen protections for religious liberty and rights of conscience across the state.

Right now Arkansas has some of the best conscience protections in America.

In 2015 Gov. Hutchinson signed Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. In 2023 lawmakers passed additional legislation to further strengthen that good law.

In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 462 protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience. Before 2021, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly focused on abortion and end of life decisions, and they protected very few people. Act 462 helped broaden those protections for all healthcare workers.

Two bills filed this year would make these good laws even better.

H.B. 1615 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs) and Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R — Branch) would ensure that faith-based adoption and foster care providers, religious organizations, and religious individuals are not penalized for living out their deeply held religious convictions.

Time and again, wedding venues, bakeries, photography studios, florist shops, and others have been targeted by public officials and dragged into court simply because their owners wanted to operate according to their deeply held convictions. H.B. 1615 will help prevent the government from burdening the free exercise of religion in Arkansas.

S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) strengthens the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021. Among other things, this good bill adds whistleblower protections for healthcare workers, and it helps protect all medical professionals from having their rights of conscience violated.

If passed, these two bills would help Arkansas continue providing some of the best protections for religious liberty and rights of conscience in the country. That would be something to celebrate.

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

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Bad Bill Would Weaken Arkansas’ Abortion Laws

Abortion, , , ,

A bad bill filed at the state legislature would weaken Arkansas’ abortion laws — possibly allowing hundreds or even thousands of abortions on healthy unborn children every year.

Right now abortion in Arkansas is generally prohibited except to save the life of the mother. This year Arkansas passed an excellent measure clarifying and closing loopholes in the state’s pro-life laws.

H.B. 1880 by Rep. Ashley Hudson (D — Little Rock) would expand abortion in Arkansas.

The bill would add sweeping health exceptions for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. It also would permit abortion in cases of rape or incest or when a baby is at risk of certain fetal abnormalities.

Since 2019, there has been a lot of discussion about putting exceptions for rape and incest in Arkansas’ pro-life laws.

Rape and incest are evil. A woman who is raped is a victim in every sense of the word, and only about 2%–5% of all abortions are performed because of rape of incest.

In light of that, it’s easy for some people to justify abortion in these situations.

But there are serious problems with allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest.

Below are a few points to consider.

The Unborn Baby is Totally Innocent

An unborn boy or girl has no control over how he or she was conceived.

These are living human beings.

It is not right to kill an unborn baby because the baby’s father was a rapist.

Abortion Helps Conceal Crimes Like Rape, Incest, and Sex Trafficking

Sexual predators sometimes coerce their victims into having abortions to conceal rape or incest.

In 2016 abortionist Ulrich Klopfer admitted to the Indiana Medical Licensing Board that he once performed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl from Illinois who had been raped by her uncle. Dr. Klopfer did not report the crime to law enforcement.

He let the girl go home to her parents who knew about the rape and had decided not to prosecute. As far as we can tell, that girl’s uncle was never brought to justice.

In 2014 researchers Laura Lederer and Christopher Wetzel found 55% of sex-trafficking survivors surveyed reported at least one abortion, and 29.9% reported multiple abortions. Lederer and Wetzel concluded,

The prevalence of forced abortions is an especially disturbing trend in sex trafficking. . . . One victim noted that “in most of [my six abortions,] I was under serious pressure from my pimps to abort the babies.” Another survivor, whose abuse at the hands of her traffickers was particularly brutal, reported seventeen abortions and indicated that at least some of them were forced on her.

Abortion helps cover up evil crimes like these.

Rapists Have No Legal Claim to Their Victims or Their Victims’ Children

Under Arkansas law, a rapist has no legal claim to his victim or the children of his victim.

That means a woman or girl who becomes pregnant because of rape can keep the child or put the child up for adoption, but she does not have to consult the rapist or share custody with him.

Arkansas law is very clear on that point.

Additionally, state courts can take other appropriate action to protect victims of rape or incest and their children.

Abortion Does Not Heal the Harm That Rape and Incest Cause

Abortion doesn’t heal the wounds that rape or incest leave behind.

Abortion takes the life of an unborn baby, and it carries dangerous risks for the woman.

Abortion is not a quick fix. Its consequences are very serious.

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

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High Stakes, Low Standards: Hemp Edibles Fail the Test in Oregon

Marijuana,

According to different news outlets, authorities in Oregon have determined most gummies and other edibles made from hemp contain high levels of THC.

THC is the main psychoactive drug found in marijuana.

In 2018, Congress passed the federal Agriculture Improvement Act legalizing industrial hemp — or cannabis — that is low in THC. The goal was to make it possible for farmers to grow cannabis plants for use in textiles like rope or cloth.

But manufacturers have found ways to extract and refine the little bit of THC in industrial hemp. Doing this on a commercial scale means they can produce a lot of THC to infuse into drinks, candies, e-cigarettes, and other products.

Marijuana is currently legal in California, but illicit marijuana continues to be a serious problem for the state.

The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission recently tested 51 samples of industrial hemp flowers as part of the commission’s “Operation Clean Leaf” initiative. All 51 samples contained more THC than federal law allows.

Authorities also said the vast majority of hemp products were sold without proper age verification, and that some were tainted with pesticides.

All of this is deeply concerning, because lawmakers in Arkansas are currently considering multiple bills to legalize drinks and edibles containing drugs made from hemp.

H.B. 1722 by Rep. Jeremiah Moore (R — Clarendon) would repeal Act 629 and legalize THC made from hemp — including e-cigarettes, food, drinks, and other products containing THC.

H.B. 1722 would give wealthy companies a way to grow, manufacture, and sell dangerous drugs in Arkansas. The bill’s regulatory framework simply won’t protect kids from these drugs.

If H.B. 1722 passes, dangerous drugs made from cannabis will be fully legal for anyone over age 21 and available all over Arkansas.

And H.B. 1578 by Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R — Knoxville) would legalize drinks containing THC made from hemp in Arkansas.

In other states, non-alcoholic seltzer drinks with as much THC as recreational marijuana products have raised serious public health and safety concerns. H.B. 1578 would legalize these intoxicating, THC-infused drinks in Arkansas.

However, last week Sen. Dees and Rep. Gazaway filed S.B. 533 — a good bill that prohibits intoxicating hemp products that contain THC and other drugs.

S.B. 533 effectively stops THC and other drugs made from hemp from being put into food or drinks sold in the state.

The bill also helps make sure other hemp products like CBD oil and cosmetics do not contain dangerous drugs, and it requires these products to be tested for pesticides and other contaminants.

S.B. 533 has been assigned to the Senate Agriculture Committee, and the bill could be brought up for a vote as early as next week.

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

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