JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

An Arkansas bill allowing for a so-called monument to the unborn on Arkansas State Capitol grounds was signed into law last spring. The monument is intended to memorialize the abortions performed in the state during the nearly 50 years the procedure was legal under Roe v. Wade, but the law does not specify what an appropriate memorial would look like. And as Little Rock Public Radio's Josie Lenora reports, this has led to some debate and discomfort over what design to choose for such a public and political piece of art.

JOSIE LENORA: The memorial is supposed to celebrate the end of legal abortion in the state. Here's Senator Kim Hammer, a Republican lawmaker from the suburbs of Little Rock, giving his pitch for the monument to the Arkansas legislature back in March.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KIM HAMMER: It is a monument that is recognizing the 236,243-plus babies that were never born as a result of Roe v. Wade.

Finding a tasteful design for Arkansas' 'monument to the unborn' has been fraught

By Linda Satter

About 120 people and two dogs gathered Feb. 9 in the Fred Smith Auditorium to participate in a live-streamed celebration of the life of Susan Smyth, M.D., Ph.D., who was the executive vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and dean of the UAMS College of Medicine.

Smyth, who joined UAMS in June 2021, died Dec. 31, 2022.

The dogs, English black Labradors Saleh and Carmine, were former therapy dogs at the University of Kentucky that Smyth adopted as pets. Wearing service dog vests and on leashes, they were escorted into the auditorium and onto the stage by Smyth’s husband, Andrew J. Morris, Ph.D., and the oldest of the couple’s two sons, Edward.

https://news.uams.edu/2023/02/14/uams-celebrates-life-of-susan-smyth-m-d-ph-d/