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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New Lawsuit Filed to Block Assisted Suicide in Illinois

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Last week, a group of pro-life advocates filed a federal lawsuit to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law from taking effect.

On December 12, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation letting healthcare providers help terminally ill patients end their lives. The law is slated to take effect next month, but a new lawsuit is asking the federal courts to block the law.

The National Catholic Reporter writes:

The Thomas More Society — on behalf of Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Lutheran Care Center in Altamont and four Illinois doctors — filed a lawsuit Aug. 11 against the state’s secretary of finance and professional regulation and the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The Catholic-run public interest law firm is seeking a federal block on the “End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” before it takes effect Sept. 12. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division states the law violates religious and free speech rights of the First and 14th amendments.

In July, a coalition of disability-rights groups also sued against the so-called Illinois End of Life Options Act, alleging the law discriminates against disabled patients, undermines due process, and weakens longstanding suicide-prevention protections.

Experience has shown again and again that assisted-suicide laws don’t help people who are sick and dying.

Oregon first allowed physician-assisted suicide in 1998, and official state reports have shown for years that the reasons people give most often for wanting to end their lives are loss of autonomy, decreasing ability to participate in activities that make life enjoyable, and loss of dignity.

Most patients do not express concerns about pain.

In Oregon, terminally ill patients routinely receive lethal prescriptions without being referred for psychological or psychiatric evaluation.

Last year, less than 1% of patients approved for physician-assisted suicide in Oregon were referred for a psychiatric evaluation. That’s a serious problem.

Many of these patients are lonely and feel like they are losing control over their lives because of their illness. They need counseling and support — not a prescription for deadly drugs.

A physician in Quebec recently made headlines for actually suggesting the Canadian Medical Aid in Dying program be broadened to include babies. Others have lobbied for Canada to expand assisted suicide to include people suffering solely from mental health conditions like anxiety or depression.

In parts of the U.S. where physician-assisted suicide is legal, insurance companies have refused to pay for patients’ medical care, but have offered to cover assisted-suicide drugs.

Peer-reviewed research from the U.S. has found people with eating disorders have been wrongly approved for assisted suicide — even in states where assisted suicide is supposed to be limited to patients with terminal illnesses.

And we have heard stories about patients in Europe and Canada being denied care or actively euthanized thanks to bad government policies.

That’s why Family Council has worked hard to block assisted suicide legislation in Arkansas.

In 2019 and 2021, Arkansas lawmakers wisely rejected very bad end-of-life laws that were flawed and fundamentally disrespected the right to life. Family Council worked closely with our friends in the legislature to stop these proposals.

Being pro-life means believing innocent human life is sacred from conception until natural death. Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted-suicide are murder, and they violate the sanctity of human life.

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

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