Arkansas Democrats, Decline to Sign the Abortion Petition!
I’m a transgender Democrat and will not sign the petition for the so-called “Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment”, not only because I’m a pro-life Democrat, but also because the language of the amendment is intentionally misleading and would enshrine loopholes into our state constitution that would allow abortion until the moment of birth for any or no reason. Democrats, both pro-life and pro-choice, should decline to sign the petition, and if it makes it onto the ballot, vote against it, because it’s just too extreme.
Part 1 of the amendment states,
The government of the State of Arkansas, its officers, or its political subdivisions shall not prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict access to abortion within 18 weeks of conception, or in cases of rape, incest, in the event of a fatal fetal anomaly, or when abortion is needed to protect the pregnant female’s life or health.
20 Weeks is Too Late
Firstly, the amendment would allow abortion for any or no reason before 18 weeks after conception, or the 20th week of pregnancy, which is the half-way point.
Not to mention how an unborn child has unique DNA from the moment of fertilization, this is well after the unborn child’s heart begins to beat, at around 6 weeks. By the 10th week, their heart is fully formed, and by the 17th week, their heart is pumping 100 pints of blood each day.
By the 7th week, the unborn child has a brain. By the 10th week, they can bend their elbows. Around the 16th week, sucking and swallowing can be detected, they can move their eyes, and limb movements can be detected by ultrasounds. Around 18 weeks, the baby can hear sounds.
By the 20th week, the point by which this amendment would permit abortion without any restrictions, the mother can feel her baby’s movements, although women who’ve been pregnant before can potentially feel it by the 16th week. Regardless if you can feel it or not, however, the unborn child begins moving by the 12th week.
Furthermore, a fetus can feel pain as early as 12 weeks, while the abortionist injects them with chemicals or tears them apart piece by piece. With modern medical and scientific knowledge, there can be no doubt that life begins before quickening and therefore unborn children should be subject to equal protection under the law.
Loopholes Would Allow Abortion Until Birth
Rape & Incest Exceptions Without Verification
Many pro-life Americans support rape and incest exceptions, however, this law would extend that until the moment of birth. If a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy due to a sex crime, why would she wait until right before birth? And why should she be allowed to make that decision well beyond the point of fetal viability, when the child can survive outside the womb? This is usually around 23 or 24 weeks, but children have been born as early as 21 weeks and survived.
I would argue that an abortion for rape or incest at any point is practically an execution of an innocent, unborn child for the crime of the father. I don’t support the death penalty after birth, nor do I support it before birth. If you oppose the death penalty because you believe all human beings have a right to life, or because innocent people may be executed, that same logic should apply in the womb as well.
Furthermore, this amendment does not include language that would require rape or incest to be reported to law enforcement or verified in any way. That means a woman or her doctor could lie and receive an abortion until the moment of birth anyways.
Misdiagnosis of Fatal Fetal Anomaly
Part 4 of the proposed amendment says,
A fatal fetal anomaly means a fetal condition diagnosed before birth that, in the physician’s good faith medical judgement, is incompatible with life outside the womb and for which medical intervention would be futile.
This amendment also includes an exception until birth for fatal fetal anomalies, which is another exception many pro-life people support, but it only requires one physician to sign off and does not specify which type of physician (meaning a dermatologist could technically approve the abortion, however, I hope the “good faith” part would prevent that).
There have been cases in the past when a healthy child was aborted because of a misdiagnosis, as well as cases when the child was not aborted and survived. Only requiring one doctor to sign off makes this more likely to happen. Furthermore, this amendment wouldn’t allow the state to require another doctor to sign off or even make sure doctors are qualified.
The Health Exception is Too Broad
This amendment would also allow abortion at any time to protect the woman’s health, which sounds reasonable at first, but is not restricted to emergencies or serious health issues, and therefore could be interpreted to allow abortion for health issues as benign as pregnancy congestion and other common, non-life-threatening issues.
Furthermore, it’s not even restricted to physical health, and therefore includes abortion for “mental health” reasons — which effectively allows abortion for any reason until the moment of birth. All a woman has to do is say that having a child or remaining pregnant will make her sad or cause stress (the latter of which is pretty much guaranteed for any pregnant woman).
The State Wouldn’t be Allowed to Punish Doctors for Illegal or Unsafe Abortions
Part 2 of the amendment says,
Except for circumstances enumerated in Section 1, the Arkansas General Assembly may prohibit or restrict access to abortion only when it establishes a compelling government interest achieved by the least restrictive means. The government of the State of Arkansas, its officers or its political subdivisions shall not penalize an individual for requesting or receiving abortion services nor shall it penalize a person or entity that assists an individual in relation to abortion services.
There’s a lot to parse here, but the important part is the last sentence, which prohibits the state government from penalizing anyone who assists with abortion services, including the doctor performing it (who’s the only person penalized under current law). Even if there remains any possible situation where abortion could be prohibited, the state wouldn’t be able to enforce it, nor would the state be allowed to punish doctors for unsafe abortions. Potentially, this could prevent the state from prosecuting forced abortions, but I hope the “assists” part implies the woman has to be willing.
Pro-Life Laws Don’t Endanger LGBT+ Rights
Although abortion-until-birth activists claimed that overturning Roe v. Wade and passing pro-life laws would lead to LGBT+ rights being overturned as well, this is not true. Someone can oppose anti-LGBT+ laws while supporting pro-life laws, and vice-versa. Furthermore, pro-life laws could have a positive impact on LGBT+ adoption (which I believe is pro-life in order to give homes to more children).
Matter of fact, abortion has a negative impact on the LGBT+ community. Intersex people are heavily targeted by abortionists and if it becomes possible to detect if a child might grow up to be LGBT+ (which may come in the form of genetics, hormones, or something else) then it’s very possible that abortions will be performed for homophobic or transphobic reasons. If this amendment passes, it would prohibit the state from protecting LGBT+ unborn babies.
Support Women, Not Abortion
Instead of fighting to allow abortion until the moment of birth for any or no reason, Democrats should support women by making pregnancy free, addressing poverty, and defending our Medicaid expansion.
A big reason I’m a Democrat is because I’m pro-life for the whole life. The first political issue I ever got involved in was universal healthcare, because I believed it was the pro-life thing to do (and studies showed it would save taxpayers money).
When the GOP legislature passed the LEARNS Act to defund public schools, I signed the petition to overturn it, because not only do children deserve a quality education, but a lack of a quality education leads to poverty, which then leads to abortion. Furthermore, poverty leads to crime and addiction, endangering life after birth as well.
Abortion is a Losing Issue in Arkansas
The Republican Party is too extreme and they’re not pro-life for the whole life, only before birth — but even then, they don’t want to address the (mostly economic) root causes of abortion. This is a party that’s defunding public schools, letting rural hospitals close, kicking people (mostly children) off of Medicaid even though they qualify, passing anti-LGBT+ laws, gerrymandering the district maps, making it harder to vote, and trying to overturn elections when they lose. They’re too extreme and there’s too much on the line — that’s the number one reason I’m a Democrat.
We should be focusing on Republican extremism, not overturning pro-life laws — especially when polls show that only 38% of Arkansans support making it easier to get an abortion (which includes pro-life people who support rape and incest exceptions or cutoff points well before 18 weeks after conception). Meanwhile 54% either support the current law or think it doesn’t go far enough. This will cost Democrats elections, especially in rural districts that once elected pro-life Democrats not too long ago.
Back in 2018, when the Republican state legislature refused to raise the minimum wage, Arkansans got an issue on the ballot to do it themselves — and it won every county. Democratic economic policies are winning issues, abortion until birth is not.
If we want to flip Arkansas back to blue, we need to focus on supporting women, children, and families through Democratic economic policy, not promoting abortion as a band-aid fix.
Sources
Arkansans for Limited Government, “The Arkansas Reproductive Health Amendment”, 2023.
Anna Hodgekiss, “Mother told to abort her baby defies doctors and gives birth to healthy boy”, Daily Mail, 2014.
Anna Smith Haghighi, “When does a fetus have a heartbeat?”, Medical News Today, 2023.
Dr. Janine A. Parry and Olivia Kuester, “The Arkansas Poll, 2023–25th Year! Summary Report”, Department of Political Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2023.
Mayo Clinic Staff, “Fetal development: The 1st trimester”, Mayo Clinic, 2022.
Mayo Clinic Staff, “Fetal development: The 2nd trimester”, Mayo Clinic, 2022.
Paul Cullen, “Hospital said one test result was enough before termination, says couple”, The Irish Times, 2019.
Sara Lindberg, “When Does a Fetus Develop a Brain?”, Healthline, 2020.
Sara Smart and Christina Zdanowicz, “An Alabama baby was born less than 1 pound and at 21 weeks. Now he holds a world record”, CNN, 2021.
Stuart WG Derbyshire and John C Bockmann, “Reconsidering fetal pain”, Journal of Medical Ethics, 2020.
“Quickening in Pregnancy”, Cleveland Clinic, 2022.
