Arkansas lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) on Wednesday that authorizes the building of a monument on State Capitol grounds to the unborn babies who lost their lives to abortion during the era of Roe v. Wade.
The Arkansas House of Representatives passed the “Monument to Unborn Children Display Act” 60-19 on Tuesday, which would create a private fund to cover the cost of the monument. The Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission would oversee the design of the monument, with the Secretary of State having final say over the monument’s design and placement, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
“Every single year after Roe was set in 1973, we’ve had a March for Life here because we did not forget,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mary Bentley (R), said.
The bill, also called Senate Bill 307, details how Arkansas, which now fully bans abortion except to save the life of the mother, was “prevented from protecting the life of unborn children” because of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which declared a constitutional “right” to abortion.
“During the period from 1973 to 2022, approximately at least 236,243 elective abortions were performed in this State,” the bill reads.
It continues:
As a memorial to the lives lost from 1973 to 2022 due to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and as a constant reminder of our duty to protect the life of every innocent human person, no matter how young or old, or how helpless and vulnerable that person may be, it is the intent of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas to enact the Monument to Unborn Children Display Act and the Monument to Unborn Children Display Fund.
Bentley said the legislation would allow the state to raise private money for a memorial to “remember those children we were not able to protect and we will not be able to forget,” according to the Associated Press.
“The legislation doesn’t specify where the monument would go on the Capitol grounds, which includes several other monuments, including one honoring the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School. The Capitol grounds also include a Ten Commandments monument that was installed in 2018,” according to the report.
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