A crowd of young and old gathered at the steps of the state Capitol on Sunday to rally for the rights of the unborn at the 41st annual March for Life.
Hundreds spent the cool afternoon holding signs and listening to a panel of speakers remember the unborn children who attendees say have been killed by legal abortions.
The rally, and others like it across the country, marked the 46th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. On Jan. 22, 1973, the court affirmed the constitutional right to abortion.
Officials with Arkansas Right to Life, which organized the Little Rock event, defined the past few years as a success for their cause, but they encouraged others to continue the fight against abortion.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, U.S. Rep. French Hill, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and several other government officials attended the event.
“Yesterday in Washington, D.C., our vice president, Mike Pence, made an appearance at the March for Life and simply stated ‘We are the Pences, and we are pro-life,’” Hutchinson said to the the cheering crowd. “Well I am here to say, we are the Hutchinsons, and we are pro-life.”
The speakers focused on keeping the anti-abortion fires lit.
The rally coincides with the 92nd General Assembly’s regular legislative session, which started last week. Abortion opponents and legislators have said they want to pass laws that restrict access to abortion in the state. Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, recently said he’s “ready to end abortion altogether,” through legislation that would challenge Roe v. Wade.
At the national level, Cotton and U.S. Sen. John Boozman, both Republicans, reintroduced legislation that would ban abortions at 20 weeks of gestation.
“What is more fundamental than changing law is changing hearts and minds,” Cotton said on Sunday. “Through 40 years of work you have been changing hearts and minds and creating a culture of life in this country.”
Read more in Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.