Claim: A new Arkansas law allows rapists to sue their victims to stop an abortion.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Jason Rapert
text: bill to ban all abortions in Arkansas after twelve weeks of pregnancy. Then-Governor Mike Beebe (D) vetoed the bill as unconstitutional, but "the Republican-led Legislature overrode his veto." In 2013, a federal judge stopped the law from being implemented, saying it was likely unconstitutional. In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the State's petition for a writ of certiorari to review the case. The State of Arkansas was ordered to pay over $97,000 in attorneys' fees and costs to the prevailing plaintiffs before the Supreme Court decision was finalized. In February 2015, Rapert stated that the United States should

title: Pregnancy from rape
text: don't get pregnant. Medical authorities agree that this is a rarity, if ever." In 1998, Arkansas state senator Fay Boozman lost a campaign for a US Senate seat after remarking that fear-induced hormonal changes made rape victims unlikely to become pregnant. He later apologized and eventually called the claim a mistake, but the controversy was renewed in 1999 when he was appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Health by then-governor Mike Huckabee. During his campaign in the United States Senate election in Missouri, 2012, US Representative Todd Akin commented on abortion exceptions for rape victims: "I understand from doctors,

title: Political positions of Mike Huckabee
text: the state would be required to stop accepting Medicaid benefits from the federal government due to a discrepancy between state and federal law. Arkansas voters had approved a 1988 amendment to the state constitution banning public funding for abortions except to save the life of the mother. This was in harmony with the federal law at the time. Federal laws changed in 1993, mandating that Medicaid funds also be used for abortions in cases of rape and incest. This caused an abortion opponent to file a lawsuit asking that Arkansas be forced to withdraw from Medicaid. The state contended that

title: War on Women
text: Under the language of the bill, only cases of "forcible rape" or child sexual abuse would have qualified. Political activist groups Moveon.org and Emily's List charged that this constituted a Republican attempt to "redefine rape". In 2014, Michigan law prohibited all public and most private insurers from covering abortions including in cases of rape and incest. It requires women to buy separate insurance and has been called "rape insurance" by opponents because of the possibility that women will need to have separate insurance for an abortion resulting from rape. Unsuccessful Missouri Republican candidate to the U.S. Senate Todd Akin made

title: Roe v. Wade
text: that she had been raped in order to obtain a legal abortion (with the understanding that Texas law allowed abortion in cases of rape and incest). However, this scheme failed because there was no police report documenting the alleged rape. In any case, the Texas statute allowed abortion only ”for the purpose of saving the life of the mother”. She attempted to obtain an Illegal abortion, but found that the unauthorized facility had been closed down by the police. Eventually, she was referred to attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington. (McCorvey would end up giving birth before the case was

title: Rape and pregnancy statement controversies in United States elections, 2012
text: this is a rarity, if ever." In 1998, Arkansas state senator Fay Boozman lost a campaign for a US Senate seat after saying that fear-induced hormonal changes made rape victims unlikely to become pregnant. Todd Akin, a long-time anti-abortion activist, served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives for Missouri's 2nd congressional district from 2001 until 2013. On August 7, 2012, Akin won the Republican primary to become his party's nominee for the U.S. Senate election in Missouri. On August 19, Akin said that victims of what he termed "legitimate rape" rarely become pregnant. He said this during

title: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
text: that would allow police officers to stop, arrest, and interrogate children without notifying their parents in 1994. Prosecutors were in favor of the bill, saying it was necessary for police at crime scenes to question children who might be witnesses or suspects. The Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families said the bill was clearly unconstitutional because minors lack the legal understanding to waive their constitutional rights without consulting an adult adviser such as their parents. In 1997, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families advocated for increasing the number of eligible children participating in the summer lunch program. The group said

title: Political positions of Mike Huckabee
text: "Roe v. Wade" were repealed. In a 2006 interview, Huckabee said that the legality of abortion "should be left to the states." However, in November 2007 he told Fox News that the federal government should outlaw abortion, stating, "For those of us for whom this is a moral question, you can't simply have 50 different versions of what's right". In one 1996 case, the abortion clinic that performed an abortion on a 15-year-old Arkansas girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather was denied Medicaid reimbursement by Huckabee. The State of Arkansas was involved in a lawsuit to determine whether

title: William Harrison (physician)
text: Supreme Court decision in "Roe v. Wade", Harrison began offering abortion services to his patients starting in 1974, though at the time he primarily performed handled births, delivering more than 6,000 babies through his practice. As the years progressed, he started to see more women looking for an abortion and he ultimately gave up delivering babies. He wanted to provide his patients with a safe option to terminate pregnancy and started getting more patients as other doctors in Northwest Arkansas abandoned the procedure. In data provided by NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2010, 97% of counties in Arkansas had no abortion

title: Fetal heartbeat bill
text: on March 4, 2014. In doing so they became the first state to pass such a bill. The bill later died in committee. A fetal heartbeat bill, banning abortion after twelve weeks, was passed on January 31, 2013 by the Arkansas Senate, vetoed in Arkansas by Governor Mike Beebe, but, on March 6, 2013, his veto was overridden by the Arkansas House of Representatives. A federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the Arkansas law in May 2013, and in March 2014, it was struck down by federal judge Susan Webber Wright, who described the law as unconstitutional. On May

title: Frank A. Hoffmann
text: impregnation through rape and incest. On July 6, 2011, Governor Bobby Jindal came to Hoffman's home church to sign Hoffman's latest legislation, HB 636, which requires the six abortion clinics in Louisiana to post information to clients on alternatives to abortion. The law requires that signs be posted about abortion clinics to inform clients that it is illegal to coerce a woman into procuring an abortion, that the father must provide child support, that certain agencies can assist during and after the pregnancy, and that adoptive parents are available and can pay some of the medical costs involved. Hoffmann is

title: Abortion in Queensland
text: to give informed consent, injecting court involvement into situations that had earlier involved just the girl and medical staff. The case led Labor-turned-independent politician Pyne to propose laws decriminalising abortion to the Queensland Parliament. On 10 May 2016 Rob Pyne introduced the Abortion Law Reform (Woman's Right to Choose) Amendment Bill 2016 to remove abortion from the Criminal Code. The matter was referred to the Health, Communities, Disability Services and Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Committee, which also considered the termination of pregnancies in Queensland more broadly. In August 2016 the Committee released its report, recommending that the bill not

title: Bruce Cozart
text: in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation; he was the co-sponsor of both of these measures. He voted to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases. He voted for curriculum standards for Bible instruction in public schools. Cozart co-sponsored legislation to allow handguns on church properties. He voted to empower university officials to carry weapons in the name of campus safety. He did not vote on measures to make the office of prosecuting attorney in Arkansas nonpartisan or to allow the sale

title: Jason Rapert
text: marriage, Rapert stated that the Court's ruling was unconstitutional. Rapert encouraged public officials "to refuse to comply with an unjust ruling that violates religious freedom and states rights". In November of 2016, Arkansas became the first state in the Bible Belt to legalize medical marijuana, passing by nearly 70,000 votes. Rapert publicly opposed the ballot, and both introduced legislation to ban the consumption of medical marijuana in smoking form, and sponsored legislation to delay the program as long as federal laws banning marijuana remain on the books. When pointed out to him during an interview that it can easily be

title: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
text: for Abortion Act." 'It is absolutely outrageous,' Wasserman Schultz said in an exclusive interview late Monday afternoon. "I consider the proposal of this bill a violent act against women..." She continued, "It really is -- to suggest that there is some kind of rape that would be okay to force a woman to carry the resulting pregnancy to term, and abandon the principle that has been long held, an exception that has been settled for 30 years, is to me a violent act against women in and of itself," Wasserman Schultz said." "Rape is when a woman is forced to

title: Abortion in Oklahoma
text: Senate Bill 1118, which would criminalize abortion providers and charge them with first degree murder. The felony would be punishable by up to three years imprisonment, and the doctor would lose their medical license. Critics denounce the bill as breaking federal law that permits women to seek an abortion. If enacted, opponents of the measure have promised to challenge its constitutionality in the courts. On May 20, 2016, Governor Mary Fallin vetoed the bill before it could become law, citing its wording as too vague to withstand a legal challenge. In 2016, a law called the Humanity of the Unborn

title: Stephanie Malone
text: to require photo identification for casting a ballot in Arkansas and to ban abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. Malone supported or co-sponsored related pro-life legislation to ban abortion whenever fetal heartbeat is detected, to forbid the inclusion of abortion in the state insurance exchange, and to make the death of an unborn child a felony in certain cases. She co-sponsored a spending cap in the state budget, but the measure failed to gain approval by two votes in the House. Malone backed the bill to empower university officials to engage in concealed carry of firearms in the name of

title: LGBT rights in Arkansas
text: Arkansas House of Representatives passed, with a 58 in favor, 21 voting against, 14 not voting, and 7 voting present. An emergency clause to the bill was rejected by the House. Arkansas has no hate crime statute that attaches penalties to criminal convictions when motivated by bias, but a state statute does allow victims to sue for damages or seek court-ordered relief for acts of intimidation, harassment, violence, or property damage "where such acts are motivated by racial, religious, or ethnic animosity", not sexual orientation or gender identity. Arkansas law permits transgender people born in Arkansas to amend their birth

title: Abortion in Zimbabwe
text: if the child may be born with serious physical or mental defects, or if the fetus was conceived as a result of rape or incest. Under the former law, the latter two conditions were not circumstances under which a legal abortion could be obtained. Although the new law expanded abortion access, it did not go far enough for some: Jacquie Stafford, president of the National Organisation for Women, wrote in a letter to "The Herald" that the law "showed nothing but contempt for the women of this country, and makes me wonder at the sanity of our parliamentary representatives." After

title: War on Women
text: are very low," which was compared to the controversial statements made by Todd Akin; studies show that the incidence of pregnancy from rape is approximately equal to or higher than the rate from consensual sex. Afterwards, the House Rules Committee added exceptions for rape and incest. Georgia legislators passed HB 954, a "fetal pain bill" criminalizing abortions performed after the 20th week of pregnancy. The bill, which does not contain exemptions for rape or incest, has been referred to as the "women as livestock bill" by opponents after Representative Terry England made a comparison between women seeking abortions for stillborn