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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Bill Filed to Strengthen Conscience Protections for Healthcare Workers

Legislation, ,

New legislation filed on Wednesday would strengthen conscience protections for healthcare workers.

In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 462 to protects healthcare workers’ rights of conscience.

Prior to Act 462, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly focused on abortion, abortifacients, and end of life decisions, and they protected only a limited number of people. Act 462 helped broaden these protections for healthcare workers.

S.B. 444 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) would improve on Act 462’s conscience protections.

The bill would add whistleblower protections for healthcare workers to Arkansas’ conscience protection laws.

It also would protect healthcare workers from being penalized for engaging in free speech protected by the First Amendment, and it would clarify that medical researchers and other workers in the medical field have conscientious protections.

Arkansas has some of the best laws in the country when it comes to protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience. S.B. 444 would help make these good laws even better.

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

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Senate Committee Passes Good Religious Freedom Measure

Religious Freedom, , ,

On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill strengthening Arkansas’ religious freedom laws.

H.B. 1615, the Conscience Protection Act by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs) and Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R — Branch), makes important clarifications to the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The bill also helps prohibit religious discrimination against individuals, business owners, and organizations that want to follow their deeply held religious convictions.

In 2015 Gov. Hutchinson signed Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. That good law has been on the books for the past eight years — but it needs to be improved upon.

Over the past decade, we have seen wedding venues, bakeries, photography studios, and florist shops come under fire, because their owners wanted to operate according to their deeply held convictions.

Our laws must protect religious liberty as much as possible. H.B. 1615 improves on good state law to help prevent the government from burdening the free exercise of religion in Arkansas.

If enacted, H.B. 1615 would provide Arkansans with some of the best religious freedom protections in the nation.

H.B. 1615 has already passed in the Arkansas House of Representatives, where it received very strong support. The bill now goes to the entire Arkansas Senate for a vote.

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