Session Update
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
The 85th General Assembly is well on its way to requiring pregnant teens to get parental consent before having an abortion. Today the full house backed the measure proposed by Jeremy Hutchinson, 83 to 13. Before that there was much emotional debate from the floor, with members stressing the consequences some girls may face by having to ask permission. Representative Buddy Blair detailed an incident from his past days as a guidance counselor. He told colleagues that a student whom he advised to reveal her pregnancy to her parents wasn`t in school the next day. She was hospitalized with a broken arm and four broken ribs.
Elsewhere around the Capitol:
The bill that would allow Arkansans to pick their own doctor regardless of HMO lists passed out of a senate committee.
The full house endorsed a proposal to have state public school textbooks define marriage as only being between a man and a woman.
The sponsor of a bill to ban gay foster parents has given his plan an extreme makeover. Now the bill has a new title and would prohibit placement of a foster child with any unmarried, co-habitating couple.
