News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Arkansas abortion ban gets tweaked; pro-choice advocates plan “immersive” event

Published

4 weeks ago

April 25, 2025

arkansasadvocate.com – Tess Vrbin – 2025-04-25 05:00:00

by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
April 25, 2025

The Arkansas Abortion Support Network plans to show people on Saturday what seeking an abortion was like before the state’s ban took effect nearly three years ago, the group announced in a press release.

The “immersive” event will take place at a former Little Rock abortion clinic that now houses the Your Options Understood (YOU) Center, which AASN launched in the fall of 2022. The center provides resources about abortion, parenting or adoption.

Little Rock Family Planning Services was the only abortion provider in Arkansas before the state enacted one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans, with a narrow exception to save the life of a pregnant person in an emergency.

AASN has helped fund out-of-state abortion services since Arkansas’ 2019 “trigger” abortion ban took effect upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Arkansas lawmakers have since proposed restricting abortion further or clarifying the terms of the existing ban. Some of those proposals became law after the 2025 legislative session, which ended last week, and the 2023 session, which saw a wider range of maternal and reproductive health legislation.

Brittaney Stockton, AASN’s policy and growth strategist, said she and other activists take issue with legislation that further governs abortion resources when the procedure is already banned. An unsuccessful bill this year would have required health care facilities to be licensed as ambulatory surgery centers in order to perform abortions if the procedure becomes legal again.

“We do not have access to abortion, but [lawmakers] are still doing everything they can to chip away and make it harder,” Stockton said.

Arkansas Legislature saw wide range of maternal and reproductive health legislation in 2023

Even while Roe v. Wade was still in place, state law required Arkansans seeking abortions to jump through “additional hoops,” which will be included in Saturday’s reenactment, Stockton said. Such “hoops” included a pregnant patient’s written consent for an abortion, a 72-hour waiting period between a doctor’s consultation and the procedure, and the requirement for doctors to show ultrasound images to pregnant patients seeking abortions.

Participants in Saturday’s event will learn why patients of the former clinic sought abortions. No personal information will be shared, Stockton said.

A key aspect of the event will be the portrayal of anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic, which can be “traumatic” for abortion seekers, Stockton said.

“We really want folks to understand what it was like to come into a clinic,” she said. “Whether you were there for a fetal anomaly or because you experienced sexual assault, or whatever … you still had to go through protesters telling you that you were evil, and making a terrible decision, and ‘Why can’t you just think about the baby?’”

The reenactment should last between 10 and 15 minutes, but wait times at abortion clinics used to last hours, Stockton said.

Afterward, attendees will have the opportunity to watch the film Preconceived, a documentary “contrasting the abortion experience with the misleading tactics of crisis pregnancy centers,” according to AASN’s news release. The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The YOU Center is next to Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center’s Little Rock location. APRC is one of several anti-abortion centers state lawmakers have supported with taxpayer funds since the abortion ban took effect. Thirty-five organizations applied for shares of the $2 million set aside last year; pro-choice advocates have said these centers mislead pregnant people about their options.

Pregnancy resource centers tout their services to Arkansas lawmakers

Stockton participated in last year’s attempt to put a proposed limited right to abortion on the November ballot. Many Arkansans were unaware of the near-total abortion ban, she said, and some of her fellow canvassers were not aware of the former abortion clinic in Little Rock.

Saturday’s event is an effort to close gaps in public knowledge about abortion in Arkansas, Stockton said.

“There’s hope in knowing what happened in the past so you can understand and do better moving forward,” she said.

The Arkansas Abortion Amendment did not make it to the ballot after the Secretary of State disqualified more than 14,000 signatures on a technicality.

Other Arkansas laws ban abortions at 12, 18 and 20 weeks’ gestation. A Democrat-sponsored bill to repeal these bans and restore abortion access in Arkansas was not considered by the Republican-led Legislature this year.

Legislative background

AASN’s services at the YOU Center include free emergency contraceptives, condoms and pregnancy tests. The organization distributed more than 13,000 doses of emergency contraception in 2024, Stockton said.

She also said Arkansans should not take the availability of contraceptives for granted because in her 15 years as a pro-choice advocate, she has watched lawmakers place more and more restrictions on abortion before and after Roe v. Wade’s reversal.

Anna Strong (right), executive director of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, speaks against a bill sponsored by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (left), R-Elm Springs, that would have required minors to obtain written parental consent in order to receive long-acting reversible contraception. The House Public Health, Labor and Welfare Committee voted down the bill on April 3, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)

Earlier this month, a House committee rejected a bill from Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, that would have required minors to obtain written parental consent in order to receive long-acting reversible contraception, such as an intrauterine device (IUD). The Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics opposed the bill.

Lundstrum said Thursday she has not decided if she will reintroduce the bill in a future legislative session. She said she wanted the bill to “open this conversation” that IUDs can have side effects and do not prevent sexually transmitted diseases even though they prevent pregnancy.

“These kids are thinking it’s a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Lundstrum said. “The parents and the doctor and the kids need to have a conversation that this is not a be-all end-all.”

Arkansas’ teenage pregnancy rate is more than twice the national average, with the majority of those pregnancies unplanned, according to data from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. The organization said last year that greater access to contraception and a more robust sex education landscape would reduce the rates of teen pregnancy and birth.

In February, a Senate committee rejected a proposal to require public school students, starting in fifth grade, be shown a fetal development video created by an anti-abortion organization. Stockton spoke against the bill and advocated for more comprehensive sex education in public schools; state law requires abstinence-based sex education, if it is taught at all.

A separate bill that became law this month will require “human fetal growth and development education” and the viewing of an ultrasound video at grade levels to be determined by the Arkansas Department of Health.

Arkansas legislative committee rejects fetal development bill

Lundstrum said she’s not aware of any upcoming proposals to further change Arkansas’ abortion laws.

She said she was asked to sponsor Act 387 of 2025, which clarifies that doctors can perform abortions to save a pregnant Arkansan’s life within “reasonable medical judgment.” The law will “let doctors in emergency situations be doctors,” Lundstrum said. It passed the Legislature with bipartisan support.

Another new Arkansas reproductive health law — Act 859, the Reproductive Empowerment and Support Through Optimal Restoration (RESTORE) Act — requires all entities that receive federal family planning service grant funds to provide services that help women track and manage their fertility.

“The RESTORE Act is groundbreaking legislation that champions reproductive healthcare for women in Arkansas by prioritizing restorative reproductive medicine,” conservative group Heritage Action for America stated in a news release Wednesday.

The law also prohibits state-funded entities from penalizing a medical professional who declines to participate in fertility treatments due to “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” Another new law allows medical providers to opt out of providing abortions for religious reasons.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

The post Arkansas abortion ban gets tweaked; pro-choice advocates plan “immersive” event appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Left-Leaning

This content presents a strong pro-choice perspective, advocating for increased access to abortion services in Arkansas and opposing restrictive abortion legislation. It discusses efforts by the Arkansas Abortion Support Network (AASN) to raise awareness about the challenges of seeking an abortion in the state after the ban took effect, highlighting emotional and logistical barriers faced by abortion seekers. The language used also criticizes lawmakers who attempt to “chip away” at abortion rights and points to legislative actions that further restrict access.

The article clearly reflects an advocacy for reproductive rights, particularly in opposition to anti-abortion policies and practices. This aligns with a left-leaning stance on abortion and reproductive health, as the content emphasizes the need for more access and criticizes conservative legislation.

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News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Trump administration violated order in deportations to South Sudan, judge says

Published

1 day ago

May 21, 2025

Staff Editor

arkansasadvocate.com – Ariana Figueroa – 2025-05-21 14:50:00

Trump administration violated order in deportations to South Sudan, judge says

by Ariana Figueroa, Arkansas Advocate
May 21, 2025

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Boston Wednesday found the Trump administration violated his preliminary injunction barring third-country removals of migrants without due process, after immigration lawyers say their clients were placed on deportation flights to South Sudan.

“It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their transfer to South Sudan,” U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy said. “The government’s actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court’s order.”

Murphy said he will narrowly tailor a remedy to the violation of his April order. He said the Trump administration must give proper due process to the eight men who were placed on deportation flights on Tuesday and given less than 24 hours to challenge their removal to South Sudan.

South Sudan, in East Africa, is violence-ridden and the U.S. State Department advises against travel there.

Department of Justice attorneys would not confirm where the plane landed, but according to flight tracking data reviewed by the New York Times, there is a chartered plane owned by a company used in the past for deportations that has landed in the East African nation of Djibouti.

Murphy did not detail what contempt charges would look like, but asked Department of Justice attorneys for a list of names of people involved in the flights for potential consequences.

The hearing in Massachusetts is one of several clashes between the Trump administration and the judiciary branch over the issue of due process in immigration enforcement, as the Trump administration aims to enact mass deportations.

The White House in a statement attacked Murphy as a “far-left activist judge” trying to protect migrants with criminal convictions. The list of individuals the White House said were on the flight were from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, South Sudan, Burma and Vietnam.

Flight originated in Texas

An hour before Wednesday’s hearing, top Department of Homeland Security officials at a press conference defended the decision, but declined to confirm if the migrants were sent to South Sudan and argued the country was not their “final destination.”

However, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said that South Sudan had agreed to take the men.

“We conducted a deportation flight from Texas to remove some of the most barbaric violent individuals illegally in the United States,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said at the press event.

McLaughlin said that the men were still in DHS custody.

Murphy, appointed by former President Joe Biden, has not ordered the Trump administration to return any of the men. At the hearing, he did question a top ICE official in Texas, Marcos Charles, and directed him to find out if it were possible to hold credible fear interviews for the men instead of requiring they be returned to the U.S.

Immigration attorneys who last night had asked for the emergency hearing pushed for the immigrants to be brought back to the U.S.

DOJ attorney Drew Ensign disagreed and said that any remedy from Murphy should be narrowly tailored and that ordering the men to be returned would be “too broad.”

Ensign also said the Trump administration’s position is that 24 hours is enough time for an immigrant to challenge their removal to a country that is not their home.

Trina Realmuto, of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, argued 30 days is preferable, because many of those removed do not have legal representation and need time to find an attorney and determine if they could face possible harm in another country.

Murphy said that he would clarify how much time is appropriate. He directed DOJ attorneys to make sure that everyone involved in third-country removals, from pilots to immigration officers, to be aware of his order and the possible criminal contempt charges if it’s not followed.

On late Tuesday, in an emergency hearing, Murphy ordered the government to keep the eight migrants in DHS custody until more details could be revealed in Wednesday’s hearing to determine if his April order was violated.

In that earlier order, Murphy barred the Trump administration from removing individuals from a country that is not their home country without giving them time to raise any concerns that they might face harm in the country they would be removed to.

Repeated conflicts between administration and judges

Sending migrants to South Sudan would bring the same concerns as sending them to Libya, another third country with a history of clashes.

The Trump administration extended Temporary Protection Status to nationals of South Sudan for six months to remain in the U.S., meaning those immigrants were granted work permits and deportation protections because their home country was deemed too dangerous to return to.

In early May, Murphy warned Trump officials that any deportations to a third country such as Libya and Saudi Arabia — countries with human rights violations that the Trump administration was considering for deportations — would have clearly violated his April preliminary injunction.

It’s not the first conflict between federal judges and the Trump administration.

A federal judge in Maryland grilled Department of Justice lawyers and accused the administration of stonewalling information on its efforts to return a wrongly deported man from El Salvador. Another federal judge in Maryland ordered the return of a separate wrongly deported man to an El Salvador prison, an order that the DOJ is currently appealing.

A federal judge in the District of Columbia ordered the administration to return deportation planes to the U.S. carrying men removed under the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798, but the planes landed in El Salvador to take the migrants to the notorious prison CECOT. The judge threatened possible contempt against the Trump administration.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday again rejected a request from the Trump administration to remove its block on using the Alien Enemies Act over concerns about due process.

The Trump administration in March invoked the Alien Enemies Act to apply to Venezuelans 14 and older with suspected gang ties to rapidly deport them, raising concerns about a lack of due process.

The post Trump administration violated order in deportations to South Sudan, judge says appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article takes a critical stance toward the Trump administration’s actions on immigration enforcement, focusing on the due process violations and the judicial clashes regarding deportation procedures. The reporting emphasizes the role of federal judges in holding the administration accountable for its policies, which could be seen as sympathetic to those challenging these policies. It highlights the involvement of immigration lawyers and human rights concerns, portraying the Trump administration’s actions as violating legal and humanitarian principles. While the article presents both sides, it leans more toward highlighting the consequences of the administration’s policies on vulnerable populations, aligning with a Center-Left perspective.

News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Jailor arrested for helping New Orleans inmates escape

Published

1 day ago

May 21, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – THV11 – 2025-05-21 09:19:09

SUMMARY: Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker at Orleans Parish Jail, has been arrested for aiding an inmate, Antoine Massie, in escaping. Williams turned off the water to a cell, allowing inmates to remove a toilet, saw through steel bars, and break out. Williams claims he was threatened with a shank if he didn’t comply. Louisiana authorities have captured five of the ten escapees, with five still on the run. Sheriff Susan Hudson has requested millions of dollars to address security issues at the facility, which suffers from outdated systems, staffing shortages, and security vulnerabilities.

One jailor has been arrested after allegedly helping 10 inmates escape from a New Orleans jail.

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News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

People in Lincoln assess damage after severe weather

Published

2 days ago

May 20, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – 40/29 News – 2025-05-20 18:25:28

SUMMARY: Severe storms in Northwest Arkansas caused significant damage on Monday night, particularly in Lincoln, where multiple homes lost their roofs and a local farm, DK Ranch, was destroyed. The Soto family, who lived nearby, sought shelter during the storm, describing a terrifying experience as their mobile home was nearly destroyed. Despite the storm’s brief duration, the destruction was widespread. The community, known for its close-knit nature, rallied together to help with the cleanup, with no reported injuries. Lincoln Mayor Doug Hutchens confirmed extensive damage throughout the city, but residents are already working together to recover.