A monument marking the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before Roe v. Wade was struck down would be built near the state Capitol under a bill lawmakers sent to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday.
The majority-Republican House approved by a 60-19 vote a proposal allowing the creation of a “monument to the unborn” on the Capitol grounds. The bill, which the Senate approved earlier this month, requires the secretary of state to permit and arrange the placement of the monument.
It also requires the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to oversee the selection of the artist and the design of the monument with input from anti-abortion groups.
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. Arkansas’ ban only allows abortions to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency.
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Tennessee lawmakers in 2018 approved legislation allowing a similar privately funded monument on its Capitol grounds. The monument has not yet been installed.
The Arkansas monument proposal drew objections from some anti-abortion Republicans who said it would be counterproductive, and that efforts should instead focus on other needs such as helping pregnant women and foster children.
A demonstrator holds a sign outside the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock on June 24, 2022, protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A monument marking the number of abortions performed in Arkansas is being sent to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo, File)
Republican Rep. Steve Unger, one of two Republicans who voted against the measure, said the monument “has the look and feel of…
