LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued a statement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s judgment in Rutledge v. Little Rock Family Planning Services vacating a lower court order blocking Arkansas’s ban on abortions performed solely on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis and ordering Little Rock Family Planning Services to pay the State of Arkansas for filing costs associated with seeking Supreme Court review. This Supreme Court victory comes on the heels of the dismissal of Planned Parenthood v. Gillespie in federal district court, where Arkansas terminated Planned Parenthood’s participation in the State’s Medicaid program. Since the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June, Attorney General Rutledge has also been successful in ending litigation challenging the dismemberment abortion ban and the total abortion ban (SB6).
“For the last two years, Arkansas has been the most prolife state in the union because of the work of the dedicated staff at the Attorney General’s Office,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “After certifying the Supreme Court’s overruling of Roe and Casey, which ended elective abortion in Arkansas, my office jumped into action to strike all remaining abortion lawsuits. I have always advocated for the lives of unborn children because no baby should ever face the unimaginable and horrifying fate of abortion.”
