ACLU of Arkansas Statement on Latest Abortion Ban Pre-Filed in State Legislature

LITTLE ROCK – The ACLU of Arkansas today issued the following statement regarding Senate Bill 6, which would ban abortion in all cases except to save the life of the patient.

Holly Dickson, ACLU of Arkansas executive director, made the following statement:

“Once again, legislation has been filed in Arkansas to interfere with people’s lives, intrude on their rights to make their own personal medical decisions, and try to block them from care. The bill in question, Senate Bill 6, is an outright abortion ban that is cruel and blatantly unconstitutional.

“Let’s be clear: if passed, this brazenly unconstitutional abortion ban will be struck down in court, and legislators who passed it will have achieved nothing but having wasted taxpayer dollars on an unlawful measure and diverted scarce resources from the urgent needs our communities face in the midst of an ongoing and devastating pandemic.

“For the health and safety of all Arkansans, we urge state lawmakers to shelve this divisive and unconstitutional measure and focus instead on addressing the critical challenges our communities face. We need economic, public health, and individual recovery from COVID-19 which is raging through our communities, causing untold suffering and hardship. People are dying, families are suffering, our students and schools are under-resourced and underfunded, the state is still criminalizing poverty, tenants lack protections, and we have racial injustice and voter suppression to tackle. This government overreach is at the expense of constituents’ well-being. Arkansans want and deserve more freedom, not less.”

This release is online at: https://www.acluarkansas.org/en/press-releases/aclu-arkansas-statement-latest-abortion-ban-pre-filed-state-legislature