Arkansas House OKs allowing moral objections by doctors

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas House on Monday approved legislation that would allow doctors to refuse to treat someone because of religious or moral objections, a proposal that opponents say would give broad powers to discriminate against patients.

The majority-Republican House voted 72-20 for the measure, which says health care workers and institutions have the right to not participate in non-emergency treatments that violate their conscience. The bill goes back to the Senate, which last month approved an earlier version of the legislation.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has not said whether he supports the bill and said Monday he was still reviewing the measure. Similar proposals stalled in the Legislature in 2017 and 2019.

Opponents of the bill called it a part of a trend of measures discriminating against LGBTQ people that are advancing in the Legislature. Others include bills that would prohibit transgender girls and women from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity and banning gender confirming treatments for minors.

“This bill simply piles on with others that continue to restrict and hang over like a dark bog of intolerance over our state, and stagnate our quality of life and our economic growth," Democratic Rep. Tippi McCullough, the Legislature's only openly gay member, said before the vote.

Supporters of the bill say it would protect health care workers from being forced to perform something that goes against their conscience. Supporters argued providers could only cite conscience for not performing types of treatment, but couldn't use it for targeting specific groups of patients.

“This bill provides a remedy for our medical care providers. It does not discriminate in any way," Republican Rep. Brandt Smith, a sponsor of the measure, said.

Avery Grayson Williams of Grant County is the winner of the 2021 Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas State Spelling Bee. The Sheridan Middle School student is the son of Nick and Summer Williams.

Williams competed with 47 other students from across Arkansas at the event that was held March 13 at the Arkansas 4-H Center in Little Rock.

Second place was won by the 2020 Winner Thomas Sinclair of Garland County. There was a three-way tie for third place between Charles Akin Johnson of Washington County, Sanjay Vontala of Benton County and Aiden Watson of Columbia County.

Approximately 42,243 students from 294 schools in 57 counties across Arkansas participated in local and county contests that leading up to the State Spelling Bee contest. Williams, the Arkansas winner, will proceed to The Scripps National Spelling Bee, the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program.

The purpose of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them throughout their lives.

The Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas comprise 17 electric distribution cooperatives; Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., a Little Rockbased cooperative that provides services to the distribution cooperatives; and Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp., a generation and transmission cooperative.

The distribution cooperatives provide electricity to approximately 500,000 homes, farms and businesses in Arkansas and surrounding states.