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| Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
The three laws in question were passed in 2019 and blocked from enforcement by U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on August 6, 2019.
The first of these is Act 493, which prohibits abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy. This law would protect the most developed unborn children; ones that could survive birth if they were allowed to live just over a month longer.
The second is Act 619, which bans abortions “with the knowledge” that a woman is seeking it “solely on the basis” of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. This law would ban purely discriminatory abortions. A child's physical or mental abilities shouldn't determine its right to live.
The third is Act 700, which requires doctors who perform abortions in Arkansas to be board-certified or board-eligible OB-GYNs. Laws like this are passed in the hope that more qualified abortionists will at least have better regard for the safety of pregnant women who come to have abortions. All too often, stories come out about mothers who are hospitalized or killed by abortion providers. Pro-abortion advocates could not even allow a law like this to stay on the books, however.
Hopefully, Arkansas Attorney General Rutledge can successfully argue against the injunctions blocking these rightfully passed laws and save lives in the process.
