Four women and an obstetrician-gynaecologist have filed a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas, seeking to strike down its near-total abortion ban. The suit, brought by the reproductive rights group Amplify Legal, alleges that the laws violate the state constitution's guarantees of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
One of the plaintiffs, Emily Waldorf, a 40-year-old physical therapist, described feeling like 'a ticking time bomb' as she miscarried a wanted pregnancy in 2024. Hospital officials refused to induce labour because the fetus still had a heartbeat, forcing her to wait and risk a deadly infection. Her sister contacted the office of Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, only to be told to 'find a lawyer'. Waldorf was eventually transferred to a hospital in Kansas, where she gave birth to a baby who died shortly after.
Another plaintiff, Chelsea Stovall, a 35-year-old mother of two, learned in 2022 that her fetus had a congenital anomaly making the pregnancy non-viable. She and her husband drained their savings to travel to Illinois for an abortion, where an anti-abortion protester threw a bloody sanitary pad at their car. A third woman, Theresa Van, also joined the suit after becoming pregnant in 2023 under circumstances not detailed. The lawsuit argues that the bans are 'vague, confusing, and worse, extremely dangerous', leaving pregnant women without access to necessary obstetric care.
Amplify Legal, the litigation arm of Abortion in America, filed the suit on Wednesday. It contends that the two virtually identical Arkansas laws not only infringe on the right to choose how to build a family but also threaten lives, fertility and economic wellbeing. In response, a spokesperson for Governor Sanders said the administration offers 'complete protection for the unborn' and looks forward to defending the state's pro-life laws in court.
