The So-Called ‘Most Pro-Life State’ in America Has More Abortions Than Under Roe
Americans United for Life, a leading Pro-Life legal advocacy group, selected the state of Arkansas as their “Most Pro-Life State” for the sixth year in a row.
As with many other conservative states, Arkansas preborn babies are murdered at increasingly higher levels since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, despite the passage of new Pro-Life regulatory measures. Pro-Life establishment leaders in Arkansas meanwhile remain opposed to equal protection of the laws for preborn babies.
Arkansas Has Dozens of Pro-Life Laws
In recognizing the state of Arkansas with the distinction, Americans United for Life noted that lawmakers in the state have passed “at least sixty-five” Pro-Life regulations since 2011.
John Mize, the chief executive of Americans United For Life, thanked Arkansas Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other elected officials “for their dedication to life, protecting the vulnerable from abortion, assisted suicide, and any other means to diminish the dignity of the human person.”
Sarah Zagorski, who serves as senior director of public relations at Americans United For Life, likewise said that the group “is honored to come alongside the cause of life in Arkansas, helping our partners protect life as an exemplary model for other states across the nation.”
The office of Sanders issued a release noting that a trigger law passed in 2021 became effective upon the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Sanders has signed several more Pro-Life regulations into law, including a bill to prohibit abortions performed due to race and funding to “support women with unplanned pregnancies.”
Jerry Cox, the president of Arkansas Family Council, said in the same release that Arkansas “should be proud of their state legislators for passing the best laws in the nation when it comes to protecting unborn children.”
Pro-Life Laws in Arkansas Do Not Ban Abortion
Despite the sixty-five Pro-Life regulations that have passed in Arkansas over the last decade and a half, abortion rates of Arkansas preborn babies are higher than levels before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, meaning that thousands of Arkansas babies are still murdered every single year.
In 2021, there were about 2,700 clinic-based abortions obtained by residents of Arkansas, as well as roughly 1,400 abortions resulting from Arkansas residents traveling to other states for abortions, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That means at least 4,100 preborn babies in Arkansas were murdered in the last full year under Roe v. Wade.
In 2024, there were nearly 2,600 preborn babies murdered after their Arkansas parents traveled to other states for abortions, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute. After accounting for estimates saying that 88% of women follow through with murdering their babies after ordering abortion pills, there were also at least 2,700 preborn babies murdered with abortion pills obtained through the mail after telehealth consultations with abortion providers in other states, according to data from the Society of Family Planning.
That means there were at least 5,300 total abortions of Arkansas babies last year.
None of these data account for self-managed abortions occurring outside of the medical system, which compose an increasing number of abortions, especially in conservative states like Arkansas where abortion clinics no longer operate.
In other words, despite the presence of countless Pro-Life regulations in Arkansas, abortions continue to occur at alarming rates, even as Pro-Life establishment groups and elected officials celebrate Arkansas as the “Most Pro-Life State” in the country.
Abortion Remains Legal for Women in Arkansas
Pro-Life regulations which exempt pregnant women who willfully have abortions from prosecution explain why thousands of Arkansas preborn babies are legally murdered in the state each year.
While current statute says that “a person shall not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency,” the law has a carveout making clear that the provision does not “authorize the charging or conviction of a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child.”
Arkansas women have been exempted from prosecution for abortions “since at least 1970,” with similar laws keeping abortion legal for women passing since 1983, according to one analysis from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of Pro-Life establishment group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Pro-Life establishment leaders nevertheless insist that their regulations in Arkansas are lowering abortion numbers despite these loopholes for pregnant women who willfully have abortions. In an interview for the docuseries “Abortion-Free,” produced by the Foundation to Abolish Abortion and Rescue Those, Arkansas Right to Life executive director Rose Mimms claimed that “abortions started dropping the more laws we passed.”
Mimms also claimed in “Abortion-Free” that laws imposing criminal penalties on women who have abortions are unnecessary because “they are being punished enough” since they have already “lost their child.”
Mimms was one of more than seventy Pro-Life establishment leaders who signed a national open letter three years ago opposing all legislation allowing penalties for women who willfully have abortions. Catherine Glenn Foster, the now-former chief executive of Americans United for Life, signed the same document.
Rather than insisting Arkansas is the “Most Pro-Life State” in the country, and proclaiming the supposed efficacy of Pro-Life regulations in conservative states, Americans United for Life and similar Pro-Life establishment groups should address how their laws allow abortions to continue by keeping abortion legal for women.
Unless these loopholes are addressed, abortion will not be abolished, and countless thousands of preborn babies will not receive equal protection of the laws.