The Arkansas Senate apparently won't be taking up any of three anti-abortion bills in the ongoing fiscal session.
Last week, senators voted 20-11 to table for the rest of this session three resolutions, two of them for identical bills.
Gone for now at least are two resolutions by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, and another by Sen. Scott Flippo, R-Mountain Home.
Rapert was trying to get his colleagues to consider the Arkansas Human Heartbeat and Human Life Civil Justice Act. Flippo was promoting the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection Act.
Flippo reportedly asked for his resolution to be tabled along with Rapert's two, but Rapert is still trying to find some way to revive his tabled measures.
Those resolutions (and others that also failed to win legislative support so far) are attempts to make Arkansas law even more inflexible when it comes to abortion.
Among provisions in some of the legislation was the Texas-style civil cause of action that enables private citizens to sue to enforce that state's latest abortion ban.
That's the controversial approach to enforcement that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed to continue in Texas.
Arkansas won't be going that route just yet.
The only way any of those Arkansas resolutions could come off the table is with a vote of 24 members of the Senate. That's not likely to happen in the current session, which is designed to be focused on the state budget.
Notably, Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, was behind the motion to table.
Hickey told a reporter that there had to be "a stopping point," so the Legislature could get on with the fiscal business that called them to Little Rock.
Both chambers of the Legislature must pass a resolution before introduction of any non-appropriation bill is allowed in a fiscal session. A two-thirds vote in each chamber is required for passage.
Tabling Rapert and Flippo's three resolutions gave them an extra hurdle to clear before the Senate could take that step.
The rules are intended to keep the Legislature from straying too far afield during fiscal sessions, which are held in even-numbered years. Regular sessions are held every odd-numbered year. In regular sessions, it's Katy bar the door as to what lawmakers may consider.
Truth be told, a lot of the state's legislators, most of whom are Republicans, may be as determined as Rapert to limit access to abortion.
Seldom does the Legislature meet for a general session when lawmakers don't consider bills to restrict abortion access.
In 2021, Rapert sponsored and got passed a ban on all abortions in the state except those performed to save the life of the mother. A federal judge has since enjoined the law, which would presumably be the most restrictive of any in the country if let stand.
Many lawmakers, as well as Gov. Asa Hutchinson, another Republican with a pro-life history, want to wait on the U.S. Supreme Court, which will rule on a related Mississippi lawsuit later this year. The ruling could leave abortion decisions to the states. (Mississippi's law bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.)
The court's decision is widely expected to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1972 case that upheld a woman's right to a safe and legal abortion.
Meanwhile, the debate in Arkansas turns in part on electoral politics.
At least some of the opposition to Rapert's efforts to get another abortion bill before the Legislature this year is directly related to his being a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
He's in a crowded field of announced candidates that includes Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, yet another pro-life Republican, who is term-limited in her current job. Originally a candidate for governor, she switched to the lieutenant governor's race a couple of months back and is the likely frontrunner.
Rapert says he's not trying to benefit his campaign with his pro-life stance, but the senator also pointed out in an interview that he has pledged to "fight to save babies' lives" since first elected in 2010 and has been re-elected time and again by Arkansas voters.
Rapert has nevertheless also drawn criticism from colleagues for grandstanding from his seat in the Senate, which may help explain why similarly minded anti-abortion foes acted to shut down his abortion legislation in this fiscal session.