Arkansas House Passes Abortion Ban
By micro99 at 13 February, 2009, 4:46 pm
The Arkansas state House passed a bill on Thursday that will ban late-term abortions in the state, making it a felony for doctors to perform the procedure.
In an 84-6 vote yesterday the state legislature passed with no debate and no one speaking on the House floor about the bill.
“I was very excited and surprised,” representative Dawn Creekmore, author of the bill, told Arkansas News after the vote. “I didn’t think the number would be that high. I was expecting some debate.”
The bill does have a provision that allows the procedure to be performed if it would save the life of the mother. Under the proposed new law, a woman who had a late-term abortion would not face prosecution, but a physician could face civil action.
Arkansas governor Mike Beebe has said he would sign the bill but it must first past through the state Senate.
Last May a federal appeals court struck down a Virginia late-term abortion ban saying it was unconstitutional because it placed an undue burden on a woman attempting to have an abortion procedure.
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