§ 20-16-1902 — Legislative findings and purpose

Arkansas § 20-16-1902

• Jurisdiction: Arkansas
• Title: 20

Text

(a) The General Assembly finds that: (1) With regard to sex-selection abortion: (A) The victims of sex-selection abortion are overwhelmingly female; (B) A sex-selection abortion is used to prevent the birth of a child of an undesired sex; (C) The United States, along with other countries, has petitioned the United Nations General Assembly to declare sex-selection abortion a crime against women; (D) Countries such as India, Great Britain, and China have taken steps to end sex-selection abortions; (E) Women are a vital part of our society and culture and possess the same fundamental human rights as men; (F) The United States prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in various areas, including employment, education, athletics, and health insurance; (G) It is undesirable to have a distortion in the sex ratio within a society, particularly when there is a shortage of women; and (H) Countries with high rates of male preference have experienced ill effects as a result of having an increasing population of young, unmarried men; and (2) With regard to maternal health: (A) It is undisputed that abortion risks to maternal health increase as gestation increases; (B) The risk of death for pregnant women at eight (8) weeks' gestation is one (1) death per one million (1,000,000) and rises to: (i) One (1) death per twenty-nine thousand (29,000) abortions between sixteen (16) and twenty (20) weeks' gestation; and (ii) One (1) death per eleven thousand (11,000) abortions at twenty-one (21) weeks' gestation or later; (C) A woman is thirty-five (35) times more likely to die from an abortion performed at twenty (20) weeks' gestation than she would have been had the abortion been performed in the first trimester; (D) A woman is ninety-one (91) times more likely to die from an abortion performed at twenty-one (21) weeks' gestation or later than she would have been had the abortion been performed in the first trimester; and (E) Because abortions performed solely based on the sex of a child are generally performed later in pregnancy, women undergoing these abortions are unnecessarily exposed to increased health risks, including an exponentially higher risk of death. (b) Based on the findings in this section, the purpose of this subchapter is to: (1) Ban abortions performed solely for reasons of sex-selection; and (2) Protect women from the risks inherent in late-term abortions.

Legislative History

Added by Act 2017, No. 733,§ 1, eff. 8/1/2017, op. 1/1/2018.