Arkansas House Cmte Passes Bill to Help Women Avoid Forced Abortions

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 21, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Arkansas House Cmte Passes Bill to Help Women Avoid Forced Abortions Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 21
, 2007

Little Rock, AR (LifeNews.com) — A state House committee passed a bill Tuesday that would help women avoid being forced or pressured to have an abortion. The measure would require abortion businesses in the state to tell women that it is illegal for someone else to coerce them into having one.

Representative Sid Rosenbaum of Little Rock said no one — including a husband, boyfriend or parent — should pressure a pregnant woman into having an abortion.

The House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor signed off on the measure that would add a statement about forced abortions to the state’s informed consent law that gives women information about abortion’s risks and alternatives.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee signed the Right to Know bill into law in 2001 and, in 2005, state legislators added an amendment to it telling women about the pain a baby would feel in an abortion done after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The bill now heads to the state House for consideration.

The legislation comes after police in Bryant, Arkansas began an investigation of 41 year-old Jeffery Cheshier, who they accuse of impregnating a 15 year-old after he sexually abused her. Later, he allegedly drove the victim to an Illinois abortion business where he forced her to have an abortion. state1966b.html

Authorities say Cheshier began sexually assaulting the teenager in 2005 He was eventually arrested in October.

That’s when the teen told police she had gotten pregnant and said Cheshier drove her to the Hope Clinic for Women abortion facility in Granite City, Illinois, near St. Louis. There, he made her have an abortion.

The Hope abortion center has come under fire from pro-life advocates for years for luring Missouri teenagers across the border for secret abortions.

Related web sites:
Arkansas Right to Life – https://www.artl.org
Arkansas legislature – https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us