New Delhi: The southern US state of Arkansas will be building a monument to mark the abortions performed in the state before last year. Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved Senate Bill 307, allowing for the construction of a “monument to the unborn” near the state’s Capitol grounds. The structure will be built using donations received by the “Monument to Unborn Children Display Fund”. Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission, in collaboration with several anti-abortion groups, will choose the artists and oversee the design of the monument.
The bill sponsored by GOP Senator Kim Hammer claimed that the state of Arkansas failed to protect the lives of unborn children from 1973 until last year when the US Supreme Court took the historical reversal, Wion reported.
“As a memorial to the lives lost from 1973 to 2022 due to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and as a constant reminder of our duty to protect the life of every innocent human person, no matter how young or old, or how helpless and vulnerable that person may be, it is the intent of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas to enact the Monument to Unborn Children Display Act…and the Monument to Unborn Children Display Fund,” read the transcript of the bill, now signed into law.
The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court in June last year declared that individual states can now legalise or restrict the procedure on their own, overturning the historic “Roe v. Wade” ruling from 1973 that established a woman’s right to an abortion.
Since then, Arkansas, a historically Red state has banned abortions, unless the procedure is extremely necessary to save the pregnant women’s life. It does not provide exceptions for those impregnated in an act of rape or incest. Though most GOP leaders have shown support for the monument, some anti-abortion Republicans like Steve Unger argued that building the monument will only polarise both sides, the report said.
“Public memorials to our nation’s wars where we face an external threat are right and proper. A memorial to an ongoing culture war where we seem to be shooting at each other is not,” he was quoted as saying by ABC.
