By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
One issue will draw a large crowd to the Capitol steps on a near-freezing Sunday afternoon along with a smaller but fired up rally to represent the other side the day before. And it’s not Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s plan to combine state government agencies.
That issue is abortion, which was legalized nationwide by the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision 46 years ago.
Clearly, Arkansas’ Republican leadership is pro-life. The March for Life Jan. 20 featured brief remarks by Hutchinson, Sen. Tom Cotton, and U.S. Rep. French Hill. Most of Arkansas’ other statewide officials also participated, as did a number of state legislators.
Hutchinson pointed out that Arkansas ranks second in Americans United for Life’s “Life List” that ranks states based on their abortion laws, behind only Arizona. At least six abortion-related bills have been filed or will be filed this legislative session.
Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, has filed two of them. Senate Bill 2 would ban abortions when the child has or may have Down syndrome. Senate Bill 3 would require abortion providers to report complications to the state Department of Health, which would annually publish a report online. Senate Bill 149 by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, would outlaw abortions in Arkansas if the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade.
Arkansas Right to Life is pushing two bills.
One “safe haven” bill would add fire departments to the places where mothers anonymously can leave newborns without facing prosecution. Under the law passed in 2013, transfers already can occur at hospital emergency rooms and law enforcement agencies. The Department of Human Services finds the baby an adoptive home.
The other bill would require providers of two-phase medication abortions to provide clients a hotline, (877) 588-0333, and website, abortionpillreversal.com, where they would be counseled on how to reverse the process after the first phase has occurred in a clinic. The second medication is taken at home. Christa Brown with Heartbeat International told the March for Life crowd that more than 500 abortions have been reversed by prescribing progesterone. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the procedure is “unproven and unethical.” It supports abortion rights prior to fetal viability.
Meanwhile, House Bill 1164 by Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Clarksville, would let pharmacists dispense oral contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription to customers who are at least age 18.
Expanding birth control availability is not often associated with the pro-life movement, which has conservative religious roots. But Pilkington told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette his bill would reduce abortions by reducing unwanted pregnancies. Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Berryville, as staunch a pro-life legislator as any, supports it. It will be interesting to see how other socially conservative legislators react, but I’d bet against it. Rapert told me he needs to hear from doctors before taking a position. Arkansas Right to Life is not taking a position.
While March for Life participants can expect the Legislature to pass most of these bills, Saturday’s Rally for Reproductive Justice participants know they’re playing defense. Their rally, brought inside the Capitol because of bad weather, drew a few Democratic legislators.
Speakers discussed police mistreatment of African-Americans, the state Little Rock School District takeover, and transgender and immigrant rights. The point was that the movement seeks to combat a wide range of injustice and oppression, but it seemed to me they were trying to change the subject.
Then Pamela Merritt changed it back. The founder of Reproaction did not use euphemisms. Nor did she repeat President Bill Clinton’s line that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare.”
“We celebrate abortion and access to abortion as a good thing, a necessary piece of health care that improves health outcomes and should be just like going to the dentist,” she said. “And we do say we are pro-abortion because abortion is good. It is not horrible.”
So we’ve got at least a couple of pro-life legislators advocating for more birth control access, and a pro-choice rally where the main speaker straight up calls abortion a good thing.
Maybe the debate is widening, but it’s certainly not ending.
If men had the babies and were left holding the bag when unwanted pregnancies occurred, this hysteria would disappear immediately. I’m sick of old white men pushing women around and demanding of them responsibilities that they themselves would ever accept. What hypocrites!
I know many pro-life women, Sandy.
There may be pro-life women, but the big difference is that I have never known of a female legislator who pushed stringently anti-abortion policies. It’s always men, usually angry white men over 60 who want to impose their views on everyone else.