Arkansas abortion business ordered to pay state’s filing costs after vacated decision

On July 28, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a judgment in Rutledge vs. Little Rock Family Planning Services, vacating a lower court order that blocked Arkansas’ protections for preborn children receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome. The court ordered Little Rock Family Planning Services, an abortion facility, to pay the state of Arkansas $300 to cover the filing costs of the Supreme Court’s review.

As previously reported by Live Action News, Arkansas lawmakers passed Act 619, the Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Act, in 2019. This act was designed to ban abortions committed “solely on the basis” of a Down syndrome diagnosis, with exceptions for the life of the mother or if the child were conceived in rape or incest. Little Rock Family Planning Services filed suit against the legislation soon after.

In July 2019, District Court Judge Kristine Baker issued a temporary injunction, saying that the state should not enforce the law until its constitutionality has been decided.

Act 180, also implemented in 2019, was designed to take effect if/when Roe v. Wade had been overturned, returning the decision of abortion to states. This “trigger law” went into effect in June, along with many others nationwide, immediately following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade. Preborn human beings are now protected from abortion in Arkansas, except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency. As Live Action has previously addressed, attempting to preserve both lives in such cases is good medicine, while deliberately taking the life of a preborn child is not.

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Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas’ first female GOP Attorney General, released a statement Tuesday after the Supreme Court’s decision in Rutledge v. Little Rock Family Planning Services, saying her “office jumped into action to strike all remaining abortion lawsuits.”

Rutledge said, “For the last two years, Arkansas has been the most pro-life state in the union because of the work of the dedicated staff at the Attorney General’s Office.” She continued, “I have always advocated for the lives of unborn children because no baby should ever face the unimaginable and horrifying fate of abortion.”

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