Salon.com > ANDREW DeMILLO

Arkansas adopts country’s most restrictive abortion law

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:59:00 +0000

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers overrode a veto Wednesday and gave the state the most restrictive abortion law in the country — a near-ban on the procedure from the 12th week of pregnancy onward that is certain to end up in court.

A day after the Republican-led state Senate voted to override Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto, the GOP-controlled House voted 56-33 to do the same. Only a simple majority was needed in each chamber.

The vote comes less than a week after the Legislature overrode a veto of a separate bill banning most abortions starting in the 20th week of pregnancy. That bill took effect immediately after the final override vote, whereas the 12-week ban wouldn't take effect until this summer.

Abortion rights proponents have already said they'll sue to block the 12-week ban from taking effect. Beebe warned lawmakers that both measures are likely to fail in court and that the state would end up wasting money defending them if they became law.

The measures' supporters, who expected court challenges, were undaunted.

"Not the governor, nor anyone else other than the courts, can determine if something is constitutional or unconstitutional," Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Hot Springs, said in urging his colleagues to override Beebe.

In Arkansas, a last stand by embattled Democrats

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:30:00 +0000

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — When top Arkansas Democrats talk about their priorities in the 2012 election, they hardly mention the battle for the White House or the state's four congressional seats.

Instead, they're focused on whether the state Legislature falls to Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction.

It's a last stand for Democrats, who fear that the GOP is poised to end a party tradition that began as the former Confederate state was still emerging from the aftermath of the Civil War.

Arkansas is the only part of the old Confederacy where Democrats control the state Legislature and the governor's mansion. That's a point of pride for a party that hasn't been able to win the state's electoral votes since native son Bill Clinton was on the ticket.

Arkansas tornado all but wipes out town

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:59:00 +0000

Emergency crews worked to account for dozens of people still missing Tuesday after a powerful storm battered Arkansas with floods, high winds and tornados, snapping utility poles, twisting one tractor-trailer like a wrung dish rag and leaving at least seven people dead.

A twister that hit the small, rural town of Vilonia late Monday tore roofs from homes and stores, and tossed vehicles into the air. Four residents of the close-knit community were killed by the tornado.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe says rescuers have accounted for everyone who lives in the tornado-struck town and that the death toll in the rural community will likely remain at four.

Rescue crews continue, however, to search for survivors -- or bodies -- in nearby Garland County where the storm also hit hard late Monday.

Beebe toured Vilonia on Tuesday morning. He says he is impressed with the scale of the twister, which left a broad trail of destruction through the town of 3,800, some 25 miles north of Little Rock.

The main road through town of 3,800 was passable, but debris still littered the street. Officials set up a command post at a grocery store, whose roof was torn off and deposited in the parking lot by the storm.

Another Dem won’t seek reelection

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:08:00 +0000

Congressman Marion Berry says he's retiring after representing Arkansas in the House of Representatives for seven terms.

He is the second Arkansas congressman to announce this month that he is retiring.

The 67-year-old Democrat from Arkansas said in a statement Monday that he can no longer serve the district with the vitality he once had.

Berry was elected to his congressional seat after serving in the Clinton administration as a special assistant to the president for agricultural trade and food assistance.

In 2008, he was re-elected without opposition. This year, he faced opposition from Republican Rick Crawford, who owns a regional agricultural radio network.

Earlier this month, Arkansas' Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder said he would not seek an eighth term.