Webcam abortion outlawed; death penalty bill moves

Pro-life bill passed without much opposition, while death penalty stirs emotions

Published: March 4, 2015

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Legislation regarding abortion and the death penalty is moving swiftly in the Arkansas legislature.

On Feb. 25, Arkansas Senate Bill 53 to ban webcam abortions in the state became Act 139. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin of Mountain View.

“We’re thrilled,” said Rose Mimms, executive director of Arkansas Right to Life. “We’ve been fighting this or trying to educate about webcam abortions since 2012” when Planned Parenthood of the Heartland set up shop in Arkansas. The organization has implemented webcam abortions in Midwestern states, which made the threat imminent, Mimms said.

“We’re very grateful in 2015 we were able to get it done. We’re very thankful that Gov. (Asa) Hutchinson signed this bill into law.”

The webcam abortion bill in the House, Arkansas HB1076, was sponsored by Rep. Julie Mayberry of Hensley.

Arkansas Right to Life dedicated itself to banning the practice this year after failing to pass the legislation in 2013. Webcam abortions involve a doctor prescribing the pills over an Internet video feed to a woman within 63 days of conception, rather than an exam. The woman then takes the pills at home and the chemical abortion process takes about three days.

Another bill that saw movement was to abolish the death penalty in Arkansas. For two years, the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, with Sister Joan Pytlik, DC, minister of religious at the Diocese of Little Rock, chairing its legislative committee, has been drafting what is now Senate Bill 298, sponsored by Sen. David Burnett of Osceola, who was formerly a judge.

In capital crimes, the bill would take the death penalty off the table, but keep life imprisonment. Sister Joan testified during the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 25. The bill passed out of committee.

“Life without parole is much more harsh because there’s no exit strategy,” Sister Joan said inmates have told her. “Seventy-six percent of Arkansans polled say their main concern with the death penalty is the innocent will be executed … you can never be sure.”

Sister Joan said the only opposition heard at the judiciary committee was from prosecutors.

Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland spoke out against the bill, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

“This is not blood lust here. It’s about effective justice and an effective system (of deterrence),” Hiland was quoted.

Sister Joan told Arkansas Catholic that from a religious standpoint, St. John Paul II wrote “The Gospel of Life,” which clearly says the death penalty should be avoided “unless it’s impossible for the country to protect the people from the perpetrator which almost never happens anymore,” she said.

Because Europe does not support the death penalty, getting the lethal drugs made in Europe is difficult and costly. Therefore, on Feb. 26, Rep. Rebecca Petty drafted shell bill HB1473 that would make firing squads a legal alternative for executions in the state.

According to The Huffington Post, Petty’s 12-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in 1999. The girl’s uncle, Karl Roberts, is still serving on death row for murder.

“I’m so sorry for Rep. Petty’s tragic loss of her daughter. It must hurt so much. I think we’ve learned from others that the only real healing she’ll ever find is through forgiveness,” Sister Joan said. “A firing squad is like going back in time to the Wild West; the lawlessness of it is no solution.”

Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005. Thirty-one men are still housed on death row.