The Arkansas House on Tuesday passed a bill to build a monument marking the number of abortions carried out in the state before the end of Roe v. Wade. The proposal to create a so-called monument to the unborn near the state Capitol was approved in a 60-19 vote. The memorial, which would commemorate “unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade,” was opposed by Republican Rep. Jeremiah Moore on the grounds that it would represent a “poke in the eye to all those who do not share our beliefs.” “It is not a poke in the eye,” Rep. Cindy Crawford said before the vote. “It is a ‘God forgive us for what we have done.’” After the Supreme Court struck down the 1973 Roe decision last year, Arkansas banned almost all abortions except in cases where it could save a mother’s life in a medical emergency.
