River Valley residents share thoughts on abortions
Caitlin Cranford was in an abusive relationship when she found out she was pregnant.
She said she knew immediately that she needed to get an abortion.
“I can’t protect this baby from this man," Cranford said was her first thought.
Today, Cranford is flabbergasted that having an abortion could soon be illegal in Arkansas. On Monday, Politico released a leaked Supreme Court opinion that indicated the justices are planning to overturn Roe v. Wade.
If the landmark case was reversed, the legality of abortions would fall back to each state. In Arkansas, legislators have created a trigger law that would ban abortions immediately if Roe v. Wade fell. The law would make abortions illegal except to save the life of the mother. It makes no exception for rape or incest victims.
Cranford and her two friends, Jennifer Roller and Terrie Davis, are organizing a rally in support of abortion rights. Demonstrators will meet at 2 p.m. May 14 at the Sebastian County Courthouse. They also had a march protesting anti-abortion legislation in October.
“Essentially my thoughts are it’s pretty clear cut to me what the Supreme Court is planning on doing, and I think we need to take this as a warning and prepare for that to be the decision and what can we do now that that’s the decision," Davis said.
The women said that banning abortions will impact a myriad of other issues. They said this will mean more kids in the foster care system, the need for more mental health care providers and more instances of domestic abuse.
The ban will have the most impact on women who are poor and cannot travel to other states to get abortions. All of Arkansas' neighboring states have trigger laws on the books.
“I feel like this is just the first attack on our rights. This is just the beginning of the battle," Cranford said.
But for those who have fought to ban abortions, the prospect of criminalizing abortions is a dream come true.
“Well first of all I’ve been working in the pro-life movement in Arkansas since 1984, and I really never thought I would live to see the day that the U.S. Supreme Court would be seriously considering overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion decision," said Jerry Cox, the executive director of the Family Council.
The Family Council is a Little Rock-based organization that lobbies for conservative issues in Arkansas.
Rep. Cindy Crawford voted for Arkansas' trigger bill and described herself as elated that the Supreme Court is poised to send the issue back to the states.
“It’s a curse that’s been on our land, and it needs to be removed," Crawford said.
Cox said that if abortions become illegal in the state, Arkansans will have to step up to help the woman who would have gotten those abortions.
For Cox, this means supporting pregnancy resource centers. There are two in Fort Smith: First Choice Pregnancy Medical Center and Heart To Heart Pregnancy and Family Care Center. These centers help women explore options for their pregnancies that do not include abortion.
Cox said there are about 50 of these kinds of centers throughout the state.
“What I would say it means for the women of Arkansas is, first of all, they don’t have to go through the trauma of an abortion," Cox said. "People act like an abortion is something that women don’t think about. They do, and it weighs on them for years and years and years even after the fact, and many will tell you they wish they’d never done it."
Alex Gladden is a University of Arkansas graduate. She previously reported for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Jonesboro Sun before joining the Times Record. She can be contacted at agladden@swtimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Fort Smith residents share thoughts on abortions
