LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) – Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed legislation banning almost all abortions in the state, a radical move that supporters hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to review his decision, Roe’s decision against Wade. opponents pledge to block before it takes effect later this year.
The Republican governor had expressed reservations about the bill, which only allows the procedure to save the life of the mother and provides no exceptions for those impregnated in an act of rape or incest. Arkansas is one of at least 14 states in which lawmakers have proposed direct bans on abortion this year.
Hutchinson said he signed the bill because of his “overwhelming legislative support and my sincere, long-standing convictions in favor of life.”
The bans were pushed by Republicans who want to force the U.S. Supreme Court to review its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Conservatives believe the court is more open to overturning the decision after three President Donald Trump appointments to court.
Hutchinson has signed several major restrictions on abortion since taking office in 2015, but had expressed concern that this bill would directly challenge Roe and the lack of rape and incest exceptions. He repeated these concerns as he announced his decision.
“(The ban) contradicts the binding precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the intent of the legislation is to prepare the ground for the Supreme Court to overturn current jurisprudence,” he said in a statement issued by his firm. “I would have preferred the legislation to include rape and incest exceptions, which has been my consistent view, and those exceptions would increase the chances of review by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
While the legislature considered the measure, Hutchinson shared with lawmakers a letter written by the opposition lawyer to the National Right to Life abortion stating that the chances that the bill would lead to cancel Roe were “very small and remote.” National Right to Life did not take a stand on the bill, although its Arkansas affiliate supported the ban.
The legislation will not take effect until 90 days after the majority-Republican legislature adjourns this year’s session. This means that it will not be able to be applied until this summer at the earliest. Proponents of abortion rights said they plan to challenge the ban in court sooner.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas called the ban “cruel and unconstitutional.”
“Governor Hutchinson: I’ll see you in court,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the Arkansas ACLU.
“This is the worst of politics,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “At a time when people need financial help and basic safety precautions, dismantling access to abortion is cruel, dangerous and blatantly unfair.”
Hutchinson had until Wednesday afternoon to take action on the bill before it became law without his signature, a last step the governors have taken to express their displeasure with a bill without risking a fights to overcome the legislature. A simple majority is needed for the legislature to overturn a governor’s veto in Arkansas.
Arkansas has some of the strictest abortion measures in the country and two years ago Hutchinson signed a law that would ban the procedure if the Roe decision were annulled. Another measure Hutchinson signed in 2019 to ban abortion after 18 weeks of pregnancy is pending by judicial challenge.
Several other restrictions on the legislature are still being considered, including one approved by the Senate a day earlier, which would require a woman who had an abortion to be ultrasound first.
Last month the governor of South Carolina signed another widespread ban on abortion, but it was quickly blocked. by a federal judge due to a Planned Parenthood legal challenge. Alabama enacted an almost total ban on abortions in 2019 that has been blocked due to judicial challenges.