Gov. Asa Hutchinson will be signing a controversial abortion bill that has passed through the state legislature.
On Tuesday, March 9, Hutchinson signaled that he would sign Senate Bill 6 (SB6), which creates the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act. Sponsored by state Sen. Jason Rapert (R), SB6 prohibits abortion in all cases except saving the life of a mother in danger.
The bill has attracted significant controversy, even among pro-life legislators because it has no exceptions for rape or incest, a detail that Hutchinson noted in a statement released from his office. Despite this, Hutchinson said that he planned to sign the bill because of the legislative support for the bill and his own pro-life beliefs.
“I will sign SB6 because of overwhelming legislative support and my sincere and long-held pro-life convictions. SB6 is in contradiction of binding precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is the intent of the legislation to set the stage for the Supreme Court overturning current case law. I would have preferred the legislation to include the exceptions for rape and incest, which has been my consistent view, and such exceptions would increase the chances for a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
In the bill, legislators squarely addressed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, calling on the current Court to “redress and correct the grave injustice and the crime against humanity” they claim is caused by the judicial decision, as well as the Doe v. Bolton and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions. To support this challenge to Roe v. Wade, the legislators cited precedence of the Supreme Court overturning previous cases, using the Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka decision, which reversed the “separate but equal doctrine” for Black citizens established by Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Filed on November 18, SB6 has had four amendments since being read the first time in the Senate’s Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee. It was passed by the Senate for the second time on Feb. 22 in a 27 to 7 vote with Sen. Jim Hendren voting present. The House passed the bill by a 76 to 19 margin on March 3, with four not voting and one voting present.
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