Arkansas passed a new law that prohibits nearly all abortions in the state, a comprehensive measure that defenders hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the Roe v Wade case, but opponents promise to block before it goes into effect later this year. year.
Republican state governor Asa Hutchinson said he was signing the bill because of his “overwhelming legislative support and my sincere and enduring pro-life convictions”.
Hutchinson has signed several important abortion restrictions since taking office in 2015, but he expressed concerns about the bill, which only allows the procedure to save the mother’s life and offers no exceptions for pregnant women in an act of rape or incest. . He repeated these concerns when announcing his decision.
“(The ban) is in contradiction with the mandatory precedents of the United States Supreme Court, but it is the intention of the legislation to set the stage for the Supreme Court to overturn current jurisprudence,” he said in a statement released by his office. “I would have preferred the legislation to include exceptions for rape and incest, which has been my consistent view, and such exceptions would increase the chances of a review by the United States Supreme Court.”
Arkansas is one of at least 14 states where lawmakers have proposed a total ban on abortion this year.
The bans have been pressed by Republicans who want to force the Supreme Court to review its 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion across the country. Conservatives believe the court is more open to overturning the decision after Donald Trump’s three court appointments.
Arkansas legislation will not take effect until 90 days after the Republican majority legislature suspends this year’s session. That means it cannot be applied until this summer, at the very least. Proponents of the right to abortion said they plan to challenge the ban in court before that.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas called the ban “cruel and unconstitutional”.
“Governor Hutchinson: See you in court,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas.
“This is the worst thing about politics,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a statement. “At a time when people need economic help and basic safety precautions, dismantling access to abortion is cruel, dangerous and blatantly unfair.”
Arkansas has some of the strictest abortion measures in the United States, and two years ago, Hutchinson passed a law that would ban the procedure if the Roe decision was overturned. Another measure that Hutchinson signed in 2019 banning abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy is on hold due to a legal challenge.
Several other restrictions are still being considered in the legislature, including one passed by the Senate the day before that would require a woman having an abortion to have an ultrasound first.
Another radical ban on abortion was enacted by the governor of South Carolina last month, but was quickly blocked by a federal judge due to a planned paternity challenge. Alabama enacted an almost total ban on abortion in 2019 that was blocked because of legal challenges.