Bill Filed to Delete Eugenics-Type Language From Arkansas Law

Legislation, , ,

A new bill filed at the Arkansas Legislature would eliminate eugenics-type talking points from Arkansas code.

S.B. 452 by Sen. Ben Gilmore (R – Crossett) and Rep. Mindy McAlindon (R – Centerton) amends the legislative declarations in the Arkansas Family Planning Act.

The bill deletes legislative findings in state law that claim, “Continuing population growth either causes or aggravates many social, economic, and environmental problems, both in this state and in the nation,” and that “[c]ontraceptive procedures, supplies, and information as to and procedures for voluntary sterilization are not sufficiently available as a practical matter to many persons in this state.”

The Arkansas Family Planning Act was signing into law 50 years ago, in 1973, and the law’s language about population growth and sterilization sounds a lot like eugenics.

Generally speaking, eugenics promotes the idea that population growth is a burden for society — especially if a growing segment of the population is poor or disabled.

Historically, eugenicists have supported abortion, contraception, and forced sterilization as a result.

During the 20th century, the eugenics movement was notorious in the U.S. and abroad for targeting certain races and ethnic groups as well as the poor, the sick, and the disabled.

For example, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger praised eugenics efforts to sterilize the physically and mentally disabled.

When lawmakers enact legislation, they sometimes write declarations — or “legislative findings” — into the law explaining what the lawmakers believe. The findings can help guide how a law is enforced or how a court interprets the law.

S.B. 452 is a good bill that deletes legislative findings from the 1970s that sound a lot like pro-eugenics talking points.

You Can Read S.B. 452 Here.

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“Eugenics Just Got Miniaturized”

Abortion, Life, , , ,

John Stonestreet from the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview has a short, one-minute radio spot explaining a troubling way in which eugenics is making a comeback in our society.

Generally speaking, eugenics is the idea that:

  • Some people’s lives are made unlivable by the burden of disease or disability, or
  • Some people represent an undue burden to others due to disease, disability, ethnicity, or some similar factor.

Historically, the solution eugenics offers to this “burden” has almost always been to kill the person in question or forcibly sterilize them, preventing them from reproducing.

Stonestreet writes,

It’s the 19th-century pseudoscience at the root of Nazism and the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Buck v. Bell forced sterilization decision. But Eugenics, the idea that some lives are unworthy of life, is far from dead. In fact, it’s making a subtle and troubling comeback.

Doctors in the U.K. have just announced that they’ve pioneered the most effective embryo-screening technique to date, allowing couples with potential genetic illnesses to avoid giving birth to genetically diseased children.

‘Parents at risk of passing on a genetic disorder,’ said Paul Serhal, at the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health, ‘are faced with heartbreaking implications. . . [This] breakthrough…means that parents affected may be able to pursue treatment confident that their condition wouldn’t be handed down.’

Stonestreet goes on to say the “treatment” parents could seek would most likely be abortion. Listen to the full radio spot below.

[audio:http://bit.ly/1q4C4bp|titles=John Stonestreet – It’s Still Eugenics]

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