A monument marking the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before Roe v. Wade was struck down would be built near the Capitol under a bill sent to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday.
The Republican House by a majority vote of 60 to 19 approved a proposal allowing for the creation of a “monument to the unborn” on the Capitol grounds. The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, requires the Secretary of State to authorize and direct the memorial’s placement.
It also requires the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to oversee artist selection and monument design with input from anti-abortion groups.
Republican Representative Mary Bentley, the bill’s house sponsor, said the legislation would allow the state to privately raise money for a memorial to “commemorate those children we have been unable to protect and will not be able to forget.”
A law that Arkansas passed in 2019 banning nearly all abortions went into effect last year when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe decision. The Arkansas ban only allows abortions to save the mother’s life in a medical emergency.
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Tennessee lawmakers passed legislation in 2018 authorizing a similar privately funded monument on the Capitol grounds. The monument has not yet been placed.
The proposal for the Arkansas memorial was met with objections from some anti-abortion Republicans who said it would be counterproductive and that efforts should instead focus on other needs, such as helping pregnant women and foster children.
A protester holds a sign outside the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock on June 24, 2022, protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A monument marking the number of abortions performed in Arkansas will be sent to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo, File)
Republican Rep. Steve Unger, one of two Republicans to vote against the measure, said the memorial “has the look and feel of football” following last year’s ruling.
“Public memorials to our country’s wars where we face an external threat are just and appropriate,” Unger said. “A memorial to an ongoing culture war where we seem to shoot each other is not.”
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Republican Representative Jeremiah Moore, who also voted against the measure, said the memorial would amount to “a poke in the eye of anyone who doesn’t share our beliefs.”
“This memorial will do nothing for the pro-life cause as we move forward together,” Moore said. “It will only be used as a weapon to oppose pro-life values by raising money and fomenting anger and venom.”
Ten Republicans and one Democrat voted “present” on the bill, which has the same effect as voting against it.
The legislation does not specify where the monument would be located on Capitol grounds, which included several other monuments, including one honoring the nine black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School. Also on the Capitol grounds is a monument of the Ten Commandments installed in 2018.
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Democrats have criticized the proposal, saying it politicizes the Capitol grounds instead of focusing on monuments that unite people.
“This injects a contentious political issue onto Capitol grounds, and it does so in a way that I imagine will be painful for many women who have had abortions in the past 50 years.” Democratic Sen. Clarke Tucker told the Senate when it considered the bill earlier this month.
