OK. This is some serious bullshit here.
The Arkansas Legislature just passed a bill–HB 1195 The Every Mom Matters Act--to mandate that women seeking an abortion first call a tax-payer funded hotline to discuss alternatives to abortion with state-appointed “care agents”. affiliated with “pro-life” agencies. Well, you know what that will include: adoption, safe havens, and safe haven baby boxes. (1 box is already in the state and a few more set to go in shortly).
The Arkansas Department of Health says the hotline will cost $175,000 to set up and another $4.8 million a year to operate! WTF??? The bill, however, doesn’t include any money to fund the hotline—or, for that matter, any additional money to expand services for pregnant people and parents. WTF??? How much do you wanna bet funds will be pulled from in-place women and children’s public health services or hey–how about COVID relief–into the pockets of CPCs.
The bill also creates a so-called “secure” database of callers, that will include information documenting if they were victims of sexual abuse and assault, trafficking, or coercion. According to the bill’s sponsors, there would be no identifying information on file. (A-hem) The bill also requires abortion providers, under threat of a $5,000 fine. to verify, through identifying numbers given to callers, that the patient has received a “resource access assistance offer” from the State care agent. The provider is also required to enter each abortion performed into a state database. Data will include patients’ medical records.
This bill fits right in with Arkansas’ other “prolife” mandates such as informing abortion seekers they can rely on bogus “abortion reversals” to halt medicated abortions if they change their minds halfway through the process. The state also requires women to make 2 in-person trips to a provider within a 72-hour waiting period before a procedure can be performed. Bonus: for desperate women talked into terming out by state busybodies, your adoptee’s original birth certificate can be redacted at your request; thus, aborting you and them out of history.
Senator Bob Ballinger. Would you let this man own your body?
Sen Bob Ballinger, (R-Ozark) co-sponsor of the measure, which has already passed, the House really loves us little ladies. He says he has our best interests at heart and can’t understand what the fuss is about. Ballinger, who will probably never get pregnant, thinks we are stupid sheep in need of his guiding hand up our skirts:
The idea with this is that you’re empowering women in order to be able to make the choice to not have an abortion…”it is amazing how requiring a five-minute phone call for a young lady to be able to get information creates so much fear.”
If it’s that empowering why not require hotlines for seekers of cosmetic surgery… or hey… male enhancement?
Governor Asa Hutchinson is set to sign the bill.
Here’s a thought! Let’s get a law passed that requires women seeking to place a child for adoption to call an adoption hotline run by Bastard Nation to discuss alternatives to adoption I mean. we don’t want to see anyone’s life ruined by adoption,do we? No guilt, No regret. No churchy finger-wagging. No therapy. We would be happy to take up the contract, and we will charge less than $4,8 million/yr to do it. I could run it from my bedroom for $100/week.
Sources: Vice, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette