A new Arkansas law allows an anti-abortion monument at the state capitol: NPR
Then-Arkansas Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders is pictured at the Republican Governors Association convention in November 2022 in Orlando, Fla. Sanders has signed a new law that would allow an anti-abortion monument to be built near the state capitol.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
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Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Then-Arkansas Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders is pictured at the Republican Governors Association convention in November 2022 in Orlando, Fla. Sanders has signed a new law that would allow an anti-abortion monument to be built near the state capitol.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Little Rock, Ark. – Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a new law that will allow a monument near the state capitol to mark the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before it was struck down by the US Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade.
Sanders’ office said Friday night that the Republican governor has signed a bill that would allow the construction of a privately funded “monument to the unborn” on the Capitol grounds. The bill approved by lawmakers last week requires the secretary of state to approve and arrange the location of the memorial.
The Capital Arts and Grounds Commission is also required to oversee artist selection and design of the monument, with input from anti-abortion groups.
Arkansas banned nearly all abortions in a law approved in 2019 after the US Supreme Court struck down a 1973 one last year. Roe deer decision. Arkansas’s ban allows abortions to be performed only in medical emergencies to save the life of the mother.
Tennessee lawmakers approved legislation in 2018 allowing a similar privately funded monument on its capitol grounds. The monument has not yet been installed.
Arkansas’ proposal faced opposition from some anti-abortion Republicans, who said it was counterproductive, and Democrats who said the memorial proposal was divisive.
Other monuments on the state capitol grounds include a statue of the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School. In 2018, a Ten Commandments monument was installed on the Capitol grounds.
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