Heather Clark – November 20, 2020
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Two lawmakers in Arkansas have filed a bill that would outlaw abortion in the state, with the exception of the life of the mother.
“A person shall not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency,” reads Senate Bill 6, filed on Wednesday by Senator Jason Rapert, R-Conway, and Rep. Mary Bentley, R–Perryville.
Those who violate the law would be subject to a $100K fine, 10 years in prison, or both. The abortive mother would not face any penalty.
The legislation states that the Supreme Court is ripe for an overturn of Roe v. Wade and declares that the court committed a crime against humanity in 1973, much like when it ruled in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sanford that African Americans were property rather than U.S. citizens.
“It is time for the United States Supreme Court to redress and correct the grave injustice and the crime against humanity which is being perpetuated by their decisions in Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey,” the measure reads. “The State of Arkansas urgently pleads with the United States Supreme Court to do the right thing, as they did in one of their greatest cases, Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned a fifty-eight-year-old precedent of the United States …”
Arkansas Family Council has backed the measure, stating that it is time to outlaw abortion rather than just talk about it.
“Many people have been saying for almost fifty years that abortion should be illegal. The time has come for us to make it so,” remarked President Jerry Cox in a statement. “S.B. 6 will give the U.S. Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade. Family Council fully supports the passage of this good law. This is an opportunity for Arkansas to be a real leader in the effort to end abortion in America.”
He said that the organization has a network of approximately 10K individuals and churches throughout Arkansas, and Cox believes many of those will “want to do their part to secure [the bill’s] passage.”