Arkansas has hit the national news again with House Bill 1566. The language of this house bill has proven so controversial that the ACLU has challenged the language of this amendment to a 2009 law. I chose this bill as my second highlight, because it’s one that was signed into law and could actually have real world implications. Plus, I initially thought that I had a good angle at attacking what seems to mostly be a conspiracy driven bill. I had questions. These were my questions:
Why is Arkansas just now dealing with the power that a person has to dispose of their remains?
My initial approach to analyzing this bill required research as to why Arkansas, which has been a state since 1836, would be passing a law in 2009 regarding the disposition of deceased individuals. Using my own rudimentary recollection of 2009, I recalled things like “hope and change,” “yes we can,” and “death panels.” I was certain that the thought of death panels led to an over-reactionary response within my home state. I was, admittedly, wrong.
Arkansas just didn’t have a law on the books regarding final disposition. It was something that was often left up to the courts if there was a dispute of some sort. For 173 years of statehood, we just decided that was the best way to do it.
This law is a sensible one on what was a tumultuous political time for red states? WTF happened?
Despite the fact that John McCain won Arkansas by a solid 20 percentage points in 2008, Democrats actually had a majority in both the State House and the State Senate. The final disposition bill was actually proposed by a Democrat. Arkansas was a purple state before deeply divided thoughts within the state on how the run the nation and excellent local election campaigning from the Republicans exploded during the Obama presidency. And while sensible laws get passed, they tend to be heavily weighted towards the super majority party now. So they are often sensible with a hint of an extreme thrown in, like basketball on an 11 foot goal.
Why were there no complaints about the lack exceptions for rape and incest when the law was initially passed?
The law was passed with regards to adjudication of remains of adults. Rarely did they expect someone to make it all the way down the fifth option of parents, and when that did happen the parents would have had at least 18 years to figure out who is still involved in the deceased person’s life.
How did we get to where the rhetoric is so heated that simple throwing in a “except in cases of rape or incest” is a non-starter?
I don’t know. That seems like the simplest thing to do in the spirit of compromise. The inflamed rhetoric surrounding the video purporting Planned Parenthood selling fetal remains for profit from 2015 in which the proprietors were indicted and no wrong doing was found by Planned Parenthood. One would think that would get us passed the controversy, but maybe pop culture isn’t the only thing that comes to Arkansas a few years late.
Biddle America 