FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County's justices of the peace on Monday tabled without discussion a resolution calling for changes to the state's anti-abortion law.
Jim Wilson, justice of the peace for District 14, made a motion to postpone the resolution until the next meeting of the Quorum Court's County Service Committee. That committee does not meet on a monthly basis and Wilson said after the meeting he wanted to postpone discussion until some time in December, after the Nov. 8 election.
"I didn't think we needed to make this a political show right now," Wilson said. "December will be before the next session of the Legislature and if this body wants to take it up before the Legislature meets they still can."
The Committee split along party and gender lines, with all four Republican members, Wilson, Sam Duncan, Robert Dennis and Butch Pond voting to postpone discussion of the resolution. The two women on the committee Suki Highers and Evelyn Rios Stafford, both Democrats, voted against the motion to table.
Stafford, justice of the peace for District 12, said she has been trying for some time to get a resolution considered by the Quorum Court. She said she was told last month the resolution could not be placed on the agenda for the September Quorum Court meeting but had to go through a committee first. She said she has been hearing from constituents about the issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the state's anti-abortion law went into effect earlier this year. She said many people she has spoken to don't understand the law only allows abortions to save the life of the mother and when they realize that most support other exceptions.
"My Republican colleagues seem to be scared of my resolution, probably rightly so" Stafford said after the meeting. "They know their positions are politically unpopular and go against the opinion of the majority of the people in Washington County and in Arkansas."
"I've been hearing from lots of constituents," Stafford said. " A lot of women have shared heart-breaking, tragic stories about the things they have suffered."
According to the resolution, Act 308, the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act, prohibits all abortions in the state of Arkansas, except to protect the life and health of the mother, and does not provide any exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest.
The resolution states that "various Republican, Democrat, and independent elected officials in Arkansas have publicly expressed support for rape and incest exception to Act 308, including Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson, Republican State Senator Missy Irvin, independent State Senator Jim Hendren, and Democratic State Representative Nicole Clowney and that various Arkansas voters of all political viewpoints, including conservative, moderate, and liberal, have publicly expressed support for rape and incest exceptions to Act 308."
The resolution states that "The Washington County Quorum Court hereby resolves to fully and robustly support exceptions in cases of rape and incest to Act 308, and to advocate our members of the General Assembly, the Governor and the members of the General Assembly as a whole, for the due consideration and adoption by the General Assembly and signing by the Governor of Arkansas, of legislation creating abortion ban exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest and respectfully encourage the legislation to be a legislative priority of the General Assembly and the Governor of the State of Arkansas."
Eva Madison, justice of the peace for District 9, is not on the committee but spoke during the 12-minute public comment portion of the meeting. Madison said the motion to table was "cowardly" and "shameful" and politically-motivated.
Madison contrasted the tabling of this resolution to a resolution approved by the Quorum Court last year declaring Washington County to be a "pro-life" county. That resolution was approved on a party-line vote with 10 Republicans voting in favor and four Democrats voting against it after amendments that would have had the county spend available federal funds to promote health care were rejected. Similar resolutions were passed in Benton and Sebastian counties and other counties in Arkansas.
"They are trying to protect their voting records," Madison said after the meeting. "If they're going to make it a 'pro-life' county people have a right to know how far they are going to take it."
Pond, justice of the peace for District 15, said he has spent years considering the abortion issue and he can't support the exceptions being discussed.
"To me, it's spilling innocent blood, the blood of the unborn child," Pond said after the meeting. "That's a final thing."