By Arkansas Right to Life
Now we know. On July 24, 2019, we know what will happen and what won’t.
Ninety days after sine die, the official close of the 92nd Arkansas General Assembly is when the majority of legislation passed during the session and signed by the governor will become law. So, July 24, 2019 is the day when we expected the record number of pro-life laws enacted to take effect.
But now we know that at least three of the 12 have been legally challenged by the ACLU which asked the court to permanently enjoin them from ever taking effect: Act 493 The Cherish Act that bans abortion at 18 weeks, Act 619 The Down Syndrome Abortion Ban, and Act 700 that requires physicians who perform abortions to be board certified or a board eligible OB-Gyn.
Common sense legislation that seeks to protect mothers and save the lives of unborn children has been stopped dead in its tracks. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood aren’t interested in protecting mothers and saving babies. But you are.
Arkansas Right to Life has helped to enact laws that have reduced the number of abortions in Arkansas. In a manner of speaking, with 46 years of legal abortion we have done the improbable. Instead of there being more and more abortions, there are fewer. In Arkansas and across our nation, the number is far less.
The number of abortions performed every year in Arkansas is less than half what it was in the early 1990s thanks to you who work beside us educating and supporting laws and lawmakers who vote and pass pro-life laws. It’s a team effort. Still, as long as babies are aborted, we have much to do. And with you as our very important teammate, we will do it.
Unfortunately, abortion is thought by some to be answer to so many challenges. In poverty? Abort your baby. A single parent? Abort your baby. Your child may have special needs? Abort your baby.
Do you know how many babies in the womb are killed because it is suspected they have Down syndrome? It’s virtually 100 percent in Iceland. It’s 98 percent in Denmark. In the United Kingdom, a culture very much like ours – 90 percent, and in America, two out of three babies is an average of some studies.
But it’s not just babies with Down syndrome who are targeted. Name almost any genetic defect that unborn babies are tested for and there’s an excuse for that baby to die. Or that it’s a she not a he. Yes, babies die because of gender. Arkansas passed a law in 2017 banning that, and guess what? Right, it’s been enjoined from taking effect. Just like the 2017 law that banned dismemberment abortion. We keep passing laws and they keep challenging them, but they don’t challenge them all.
So here’s what we expect will happen on July 24th: Act 185 will add manned fire stations as a Safe Haven surrender location for parents to surrender infants 30 days or younger and allow Safe Have Baby Boxes at surrender locations.
Act 522 will give women in Arkansas who obtain a medication abortion written information on reversing that abortion if they change their mind.
Act 620 will require abortionists to report abortion complications in an annual report.
Act 801 will extend the waiting period from 48 to 72 hours before an abortion can be obtained after seeking one.
And Act 953 creates the Perinatal Palliative Care Act to require 72 hours of palliative care services before an abortion is performed due to fatal fetal anomalies.
We advocate for the God-given right to life of all regardless of size, sex, age, disability or degree of dependence. We spend a lot of time and sweat changing laws. And we spend a lot of time and sweat changing attitudes. Arkansas is not New York but the Culture of Death wants us to be. Help us stop the growing assault on life in its tracks. It’s not too late. Not if we have the resources to “do the improbable.”
We’ve just learned that while Planned Parenthood in Fayetteville has suspended abortion services until it relocates, Planned Parenthood in Little Rock is expanding, purchasing a new building and promising to increase client volume, and no doubt, abortions.
We must pass protective laws and encourage protective attitudes. We can’t do it without you.
The babies can’t live without you.