Three years ago today, the Supreme Court took away federal protections for the right to receive abortions in Dobbs v. Jackson.
This decision represented a huge setback to Americans who believe in medical freedom. The right to abortion implicated several rights that should be constitutionally protected: equal protection, free speech, and privacy. The Supreme Court’s decision weakened all those rights and subjected millions of families to uncertainty, fear, and huge medical risks.
When Arkansas’ trigger laws went into effect, extremists in the supermajority yelled victory. Arkansas was protecting babies, they said. Women would be safer now.
Three years on, Arkansas ranks dead last in maternal mortality and in the bottom five for infant mortality. Women struggle to access pre- and post-natal care; most of the state’s counties have little to no obstetric care available. Healthcare coverage for women is limited, despite efforts from the Governor’s own party to fix maternal Medicaid coverage.
The legislature has failed to protect women, children, and families. They have failed to represent their constituents. They believe that a child who has been sexually assaulted must be forced to give birth; a woman whose child has no brain and will never breath on their own should suffer and die in its mother’s arms; a father must risk the life of his partner because the baby is causing severe medical risks.
These are heart-wrenching, difficult decisions that should be made by a woman and her doctor.
Instead, for the past three years, the legislature has exerted every ounce of its power to ensure that it, and not Arkansans, makes these decisions. The fearless volunteers for Arkansans for Limited Government spent hundreds of thousands of hours last year trying to undo the legislature’s cruel ban; the state looked for every opportunity to silence the voices of 100,000 Arkansans and managed to do so; then rubbed salt on the wound by destroying the direct democracy process in a betrayal of our state’s motto: “The People Rule.”
The abortion ban and the legislature’s overreach is immoral. It’s unconstitutional. And it’s un-Arkansan.
