If there was a competition for regulating abortion, Arkansas would be the winner this year.
The GOP-led state has passed a bevy of new laws governing how and when a woman can get an abortion, leaving abortion opponents invigorated in their quest for more restrictions across the country — and supporters of the controversial procedure fuming.
Both supporters and opponents of the laws agree this year’s crop will have a broader effect than in years past, when Arkansas passed some broad bans that had little practical effect.
“I think what we’re seeing with bills like this is this concept of slowing chipping away at access, so instead of these broad, sweeping bands that speak to a very small percentage of abortions, this is getting at the bulk of situations where a woman is seeking an abortion,” said Erin Davison-Rippey, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
In the past few years, Arkansas has passed laws banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy — although the vast majority of abortions are performed before then anyway — and a ban on abortions past six weeks, which has been struck down in court.
Instead of banning abortions after a certain point in pregnancy, the laws this year regulate how women can get a medication abortion and what her doctor must tell her first.
Doctors must give women an in-person consultation and then make her wait 48 hours before giving her the first dosage for a medication abortion. And they must follow the protocol laid out by the Food and Drug Administration when administering the drugs.
But it’s the counseling requirements that anti-abortion activists view as their biggest success. The state replaced the current requirements with stricter standards for what doctors must tell women who want an abortion.
Doctors must tell a pregnant woman that a 20-week-old fetus has the physical capability of feeling pain, that she could experience “adverse psychological effects” from getting an abortion, give her various other information about possible risks of abortion and supply her with a DVD that provides all of the information.
“I would like to think Arkansas now has possibly the best informed consent law in the country,” said Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas Family Council, a group that lobbied hard to get the new laws passed.
A part of the measure has attracted widespread attention because it’s only the second such provision in the country. The Arkansas measure says doctors must tell women that medication abortions can be reversed if they take only the first dose and not the second. Arizona recently passed a similar measure.
Medical professionals agree that pregnancy will continue in 30 to 50 percent of women who take only the first dose, yet the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes requiring doctors to tell women that.
The group argues there’s no scientific evidence that medication abortions can be reversed by giving women progesterone, yet neither the Arizona nor the Arkansas measures require doctors to recommend progesterone; they must just tell women medication abortions can be reversible.
Cox acknowledged that halting the medication abortion process halfway through doesn’t always guarantee a pregnancy will continue, but says that because it does sometimes, women should be informed of that.
“I don’t believe the science nor the bill would indicate that’s always the case,” he said. “To let women know that may be possible — it’s just part of the overall information women need to know in order to make an informed decision.”
States have passed a record number of abortion regulations in recent years, some of which have prompted clinic closures. Arkansas already ranks among the states with the lowest abortion rates, and it’s home to just three abortion clinics, two of which administer only medication abortions.
The state replaced its former Democratic governor with a Republican this year, Gov. Asa Hutchinson. State Rep. Charlene Fite, a Republican who sponsored one of the new anti-abortion laws, said she credits the power shift for the slew of new laws.
“I think there has been a pent up demand for this kind of legislation,” Fite said.
