Arkansas is facing a State Ballot initiative seeking to create a constitutional “right to abortion” up to 20-weeks gestation. This supposed “right” includes exceptions that may be utilized throughout all nine months of pregnancy. If passed, it will also lead to the elimination of protections for women by impeding the State’s ability to enact future safeguards and is being used to further false narratives of abortion equating to women’s equality. Abortion increases the risk to women physically and mentally. 

Arkansas is ranked first for pro-life policy on AUL’s Life List. Arkansas has a pro-life constitutional amendment as well as a conditional law in place that prevents virtually all abortions now that Roe is overturned. The state regularly leads the nation in creative solutions to support flourishing families and to help women choose Life. Arkansas has over fifty pregnancy centers serving women across the state, compared to just two abortion centers which are both located in Little Rock.

Arkansas has a super-majority of pro-life lawmakers in both chambers. The General Assembly meets every other year, meaning lawmakers must think proactively to address issues that may arise during the off year. Since Roe is now overturned, Arkansas will have to deal with interstate travel for abortion and women seeking abortion pills online. This means lawmakers will have to enforce the state’s laws against online pill vendors to make sure that the protections they’ve enacted can truly help women and families in their state.  

State supreme court justices are selected through nonpartisan elections, a process that tends to reinforce the pro-life views of a majority of Arkansans. Arkansas has several laws currently enjoined by federal courts that it should seek to enforce now that Roe is overturned. Attorney General Tim Griffin has begun targeting companies providing abortion pills through the mail, sending them Cease and Desist letters.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill to create a monument to the unborn. This monument will memorialize the lives lost to abortions performed in the state. 

2024 Arkansas Ballot Initiative

This November, citizens of Arkansas may face a ballot initiative entitled, the “Arkansas Abortion Amendment of 2024.” If passed, the ballot initiative would amend the Arkansas constitution to say the state “shall not prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion services within 18 weeks of fertilization” and the state, at any point in the development on the child, “shall not prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion services in cases of rape, in cases of incest, in the event of fatal fetal anomaly, or when, in a physician’s good-faith medical judgement, abortion services are needed to protect a pregnant female’s life or to protect a pregnant female from a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.”

This language essentially prohibits Arkansas from protecting life in the womb prior to five months for most children and at no point children unfortunate enough to fall into a listed category. This is a drastic reversal from existing law. For more, read AUL’s full legal analysis of the 2024 Arkansas ballot Initiative.

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Arkansas Abortion Quick Facts

  • Abortion is now completely illegal in Arkansas, except if the life of the mother is at risk.
  • Chemical abortion pills are tightly regulated in Arkansas.

Arkansas’s Pro-Life Laws Across the Spectrum

Americans United for Life advances the human right to life across the spectrum of issues confronting the dignity of the human person. AUL’s comprehensive analysis of Arkansas’s state laws on human life span the full spectrum of life issues from abortion, to health and safety protections, to patient informed consent, to conscience rights and bioethics.

Arkansas’s Pro-Life Laws Key

  • Yes, Arkansas has this law and it is enforceable
  • Arkansas has this law in place, but it is currently not in effect due to litigation
  • No, Arkansas has no such law in place
  • Not Applicable
  • To Be Determined

State Constitutional Amendments and Statutes

Americans United for Life covers broad pro-life laws in this section. This includes both state constitutional amendments and state statutes designed to protect preborn human life. FOCA/RHA (or Freedom of Choice Acts/Reproductive Health Acts) are laws designed to enshrine and expand abortion and abortion businesses.

  • Constitutional amendment stating no right to abortion
  • Constitutional amendment preventing state funding of abortion
  • Conditional law prohibiting abortion when Roe is overturned
  • Pre-Roe abortion ban that will take effect when Roe is overturned
  • FOCA/RHA, codifying an abortion right in state law

Mother-Child Gestational and Procedural Protections

States can protect both mother and child by limiting abortion by gestational age or prohibiting gruesome abortion methods. This category also includes life-saving care requirements for a child born-alive after an abortion, and health and safety requirements for a woman undergoing a chemical abortion.

 

  • Gestational protections by age/week for preborn children
  • Basic medical care for infant children born alive during attempted abortions
  • Partial-birth (D&X) abortion ban
  • Dismemberment (D&E) abortion ban
  • Telemedicine abortion ban
  • Follow up scheduled with patient for abortion pills complications

Prenatal Non-Discrimination (PRENDA) Protections

Increasingly states are enacting laws to protect unborn babies from eugenic abortions based on gender, disability, or race. Some states provide life-affirming resources for families who receive a diagnosis of a possible genetic anomaly like Down syndrome so they know that they’ll be supported.

 

  • Protection against discrimination based on gender
  • Protection against discrimination due to prenatal diagnosis
  • Protection against discrimination based on race
  • State-provided life-affirming resources for parents and families

Informed Consent Laws

Many states require a woman to give informed consent to an abortion, which holds abortion to a similar standard as other medical procedures. These protections include the disclosure of an abortion procedure’s nature and risks, the performance of an ultrasound to date the pregnancy and allow a woman to meet her unborn child if she chooses, and the time for a woman to reflect on this grave decision.

 

  • Basic informed consent for mothers concerning abortion
  • Patient signature or written confirmation of informed consent from provider
  • Patient is provided state-sponsored informed consent website/information
  • Reflection period (48 hours) protecting a mother’s discernment and choice
  • An ultrasound is required to give a mother the opportunity to meet their child
  • Information on risks of abortion procedure
  • Information on the possibility of abortion pill reversal care

Abortion Reporting in Public Health Data

Reporting requirements ensure the government and public have a comprehensive view of abortion in the state when making important public policy decisions. This data includes basic information on instances of abortion, the gestational age of the aborted unborn child, demographics, procedure type, and complications.

 

  • Basic reporting on instances of abortion
  • Abortion reporting includes gestational age data
  • Abortion reporting includes demographic information
  • Abortion reporting includes procedure type
  • Complication reporting
  • Anonymized/aggregate data is made available to the public
  • Anonymized/aggregate data is submitted to the CDC

Parental Rights and Protection of Minors

States protect a minor considering abortion by involving her parents in her life-changing decision, but also provide guidelines for judicial bypass to parental involvement when it is necessary. Other laws included in this section are safe haven laws which create a safe pathway to give up an infant and prevent child abandonment, and the dissemination of information on perinatal hospice to parents of unborn children with fetal anomalies.

 

  • Parental consent before a minor obtains an abortion
  • Parental notice of a minor obtaining an abortion
  • Judicial bypass limits
  • Mandatory reporting of suspected abuse
  • Safe haven protections (72 hours)
  • Perinatal hospice resources

Basic Health and Safety Standards

These laws bring abortion businesses up to the health and safety standards of medical facilities. States may limit both chemical and surgical abortion procedures to physicians, require the physician be licensed by the state, and require emergency transfer agreements or admitting privileges for the physician or the facility to protect a patient if she suffers post-abortion complications.

 

  • Established health and safety standards for abortion businesses
  • Basic regulatory inspections for abortion businesses
  • Only physicians can perform abortions (all methods)
  • Physicians required to be licensed in the state
  • Emergency transfer/admitting privilege patient protections
  • Physician’s license/credentials are disclosed to patients

Legal Recognition of Human Dignity for Preborn Persons

This section covers the ways states recognize the human dignity of unborn children. States increasingly require dignified disposition of fetal remains, whether from abortion or miscarriage. The law may provide for the issuance of a fetal death or stillbirth certificate. States may also protect the dignity of unborn children by prohibiting fetal experimentation and banning the sale or transfer of human fetal remains.

 

  • Dignified disposition of fetal remains required
  • Parents may request dignified disposition
  • Human fetal death or stillbirth certificate issued to recognize the life of human persons (20 weeks)
  • Sale or transfer of human fetal remains prohibited
  • Fetal experimentation banned

Fetal Homicide and Wrongful Death/Life

Fetal homicide laws establish criminal penalties for the death of an unborn child. Wrongful death suits provide a civil cause of action for the death of an unborn child. A prohibition on wrongful life/birth suits affirms that no life is “unwanted.”

 

  • Fetal homicide criminalization
  • Fetal homicide law in place from the moment of conception
  • Wrongful death suits
  • Prohibition on wrongful life/birth suits

Assisted Suicide and Patient Care

These laws protect end-of-life patients from physician-assisted suicide, a practice that exploits vulnerable patients, has little government oversight, and undermines modern medicine. The Life-Sustaining Care Act ensures healthcare professionals may not override a minor patient or her surrogate’s decision to obtain or continue life-sustaining care. States with patient nondiscrimination acts protect patients from age or disability discrimination.

 

  • Assisted suicide prohibition
  • Life-sustaining care act
  • Patient non-discrimination on the basis of age or disability

Bioethics, Human Cloning, and Embryo Research

As medical technology evolves, states increasingly enact pro-life bioethics policies to reaffirm human dignity and ban cloning. These laws also require ethical medical practices, ban destructive embryo research, and regulate assisted reproductive technology.

 

  • Bans human cloning
  • Bans taxpayer funding for human cloning
  • Bans destructive embryo research
  • Encourages ethical alternatives to embryo research
  • Requires informed consent for assisted reproductive technologies
  • Regulates egg harvesting

Healthcare Freedom of Conscience

These laws protect the freedom of conscience of healthcare professionals, institutions, and pharmacists against forced participation in assisted suicide and abortion. States also safeguard the conscience rights of healthcare professionals and institutions against unethical medical research.

 

  • Individuals protected against abortion participation
  • Public/Private institutions protected against abortion participation
  • Pharmacists protected against abortion participation
  • Individuals protected against participation in unethical research
  • Private/public institutions protected against participation in unethical research
  • Individuals protected against participation in assisted suicide
  • Private/public institutions protected against participation in assisted suicide
  • Pharmacists protected against participation in assisted suicide

Endnotes

  1. Ark. Const. amend. 68, § 2 (the “policy of Arkansas is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception until birth, to the extent permitted by the Federal Constitution”)
  2. Arkansas has a complete restriction on abortion that is in litigation and not enforceable. Arkansas also has limits on abortion at 12 and 18 weeks which are not enforceable. Arkansas has a 22 week limit on abortion, as well as at viability, which are enforceable.

Arkansas Abortion Inspection Initiative

With the help of the Arkansas Family Council, AUL submitted a public records request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, A.C.A. § 25-19-101 et seq., to the Arkansas Department of Health, Health Facility Services Division. Arkansas has some regulatory limitations in effect statewide, and so their response to AUL’s request for information included mostly individual physician records, the majority of which were routine documentation.

Clinical inspection reports included citations for discharging patients before the 48-hour waiting period expired, failure to properly clean facilities, and failure to perform accurate drug counts of controlled substances. The record for an abortionist employed at Little Rock Family Planning Services included several citations for overprescribing opioids, including one woman who blamed her mother’s death in 1994 on the abortionist’s over-prescription. The abortionist’s record also included a 2008 DUI which he self-reported to the Arkansas Medical Board, and a patient complaint letter following an adverse event from her 2006 abortion which left her incapable of having children.

NUMBER OF REPORTS: 22 
DATE RANGE: 2014–2020

Arkansas Pro-Life Legislation Tracker

Americans United for Life (AUL) advances the human right to life in Arkansas and across the nation. AUL’s Pro-Life Legislation Tracker tracks the movement of every pro-life law. Learn about Arkansas’s currently proposed legislation here: