First Attempt At Pro-life Bill Fumbled In Committee

The first attempt to pass a pro-life bill through the House Public Health Committee was a reminder just how small the margin for error is this year.  In the previous session, Democrats on this committee successfully blocked almost every piece of pro-life legislation from advancing.

This year, Republicans made gains but still only hold 9 of the 20 seats and will require pro-life Democrats to achieve the 11 votes to pass out bills.  Today’s fumble showed hopeful signs on this front.

Rep. Butch Wilkins (D-Bono) brought HB1100 today in committee.  The bill would allow Arkansas to opt out of abortion coverage created in the new Obamacare insurance exchanges. Provision is made within the bill to allow for exceptions for the life of the mother as well as pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest.

After about 30 minutes of heated discussion (which at one point included Democratic Minority Leader Greg Leding referring to “a silly little label” called pro-life), the vote came up and was initially deemed passed by committee chairman John Burris.  But a roll call found the bill one vote short with 10 votes for and 7 votes against passing the bill.

The positive here is that four Democrats voted for passage of the bill including the bill’s sponsor Rep. Butch Wilkins along with Reps. Jeff Wardlaw, Betty Overbey, and Chris Richey.

Absent for the meeting were three Republicans – Reps. Kim Hammer (who was attending a funeral) , David Branscum (who was running a bill in another committee), and Stephanie Malone – all of whom would have voted for the bill if they had been there.

So now Thursday looks to be the day that pro-life legislation will get a second run in this committee. Rep. Andy Mayberry will bring his bill that will ban abortion at the point in which the unborn baby can experience pain (I wrote about this proposal in my column last week here).

As I wrote, pro-life and pro-choice can disagree of many things but banning the painful tortuous killing of unborn babies should be one barbaric practice we can agree to stop.  It is likely Rep. Wilkins will make another run with his bill again on Thursday so hopefully everyone will show up.