Arkansas lawmakers OK anti-abortion monument at Capitol

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Republican Rep. Mary Bentley, the bill’s House sponsor, said the legislation would allow the state to raise private money for a memorial to “remember those children we were not able to protect and we will not be able to forget.” A law Arkansas approved in 2019 banning nearly all abortions took effect last year when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1973 Roe decision. Republican Rep. Steve Unger, one of two Republicans who voted against the measure, said the monument “has the look and feel of spiking the football” following last year's ruling. “A memorial to an ongoing culture war where we seem to be shooting at each other is not.” Republican Rep. Jeremiah Moore, who also voted against the measure, said the monument would amount to a “poke in the eye to all those who do not share our beliefs." The legislation doesn't specify where the monument would go on the Capitol grounds, which includes several other monuments, including one honoring the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School.