With Arkansas abortion ban in place, enforcement falls to prosecutors, police

Attorney General’s office says local prosecutors tasked with filing charges

From left, Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for the Little Rock-based 6th Judicial District that includes Perry and Pulaski counties; Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney for the 4th Judicial District that includes Washington and Madison counties; and Bob McMahan, the state prosecutor coordinator, are shown in this undated combination photo.
From left, Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for the Little Rock-based 6th Judicial District that includes Perry and Pulaski counties; Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney for the 4th Judicial District that includes Washington and Madison counties; and Bob McMahan, the state prosecutor coordinator, are shown in this undated combination photo.


As abortion was outlawed in Arkansas on Friday, local prosecutors and police said they would review abortion complaints on a case-by-case basis.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge implemented a 2019 "trigger law" that bans abortions in Arkansas, except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency, after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier Friday overturned the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion across the country.

Act 180 of 2019 was crafted to take effect when the state attorney general certified that Roe had been overturned, returning authority to states to prohibit abortion.

The next step in fully implementing the abortion ban -- which makes performing an abortion a felony, punishable by a $100,000 fine and 10 years in prison -- is enforcement, and state prosecutors on Friday were still assessing their next steps.

Amanda Priest, a spokesperson for Rutledge, said under Arkansas law local prosecuting attorneys are tasked with filing charges for criminal violations.

Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for the Little Rock-based 6th Judicial District that includes Perry and Pulaski counties, said his office hadn't been told how the new law will be enforced and what the punishment will be for those who break it.

"We are capable of reading the law, though," he said. "If something comes to our attention, we will figure it out."

Jegley said he hasn't had a chance to review the law because he has been busy with plenty of other cases.

"The workload is what it is," he said. "Whether this adds anything or not would be speculation on my part."

Jegley said he will enforce the law because that is a prosecutor's job.

"I haven't read the law, but I expect there will be plenty of litigation in all jurisdictions across the country," he said. "We will just take it as it comes and make decisions from there."

Jegley isn't running for reelection. North Little Rock attorney Will Jones will succeed Jegley in 2023.

Jegley's district was home to two of the state's abortion clinics, both in Little Rock. The clinics received a letter Friday from the state's Department of Health notifying them that performing or attempting to perform an abortion will be a felony punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $100,000, except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.

Planned Parenthood also operated a clinic in Fayetteville that closed in 2019 due to safety concerns. The organization returned to Northwest Arkansas in September, opening a clinic in Rogers.

Clinic officials said they didn't plan to offer abortion services at the clinic to start, but they planned to expand services over time.

Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney for the 4th Judicial District that includes Washington and Madison counties, said if an abortion case does come up, his office will handle it like any other case.

"We'll use our prosecutorial discretion when reviewing the facts to determine if charges are appropriate," he said. "I'm unaware of any providers who are performing abortions in this district, but if a case is brought to our office, we'll conduct an appropriate review of the facts."

Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith couldn't be reached for comment on Friday.

Bob McMahan, the state prosecutor coordinator, said he is expecting to meet with prosecutors next week, but they hadn't had a chance as of Friday afternoon to talk about enforcement.

In 2020, more than 70 prosecutors from Democratic districts in other states publicized that they wouldn't bring charges under increasingly stringent laws that states have passed against abortion because they "should not and will not criminalize healthcare decisions."

Seven Democratic prosecutors in Michigan have vowed to not enforce the state's long-dormant ban on the procedure, while two Republican prosecutors have joined abortion opponents in seeking to overturn the recent suspension of the 1931 statute.

In Tennessee, Nashville's Democratic District Attorney Glenn Funk promised not to prosecute doctors who perform abortions nor any pregnant women seeking the procedure.

When asked how the Arkansas State Police planned to handle the court's decision and the accompanying activation of the "trigger law," agency spokesman Bill Sadler referred to the 1935 law that created the department.

Sadler said via email Friday that the 1935 law compels Arkansas State Police "to assist local law enforcement agencies in the investigation of suspected felony criminal violations of Arkansas laws."

Regarding suspected violations of Arkansas' "trigger law," Sadler wrote that "the department will consider any request for assistance from a prosecuting attorney or local law enforcement agency."

He added, "The certification of Act 180 signed by the Arkansas Attorney General [Friday] states, 'That Act must immediately be enforced by prosecuting attorneys throughout Arkansas.'"

A spokesman for the Pulaski County sheriff's office, Lt. Cody Burk, wrote in an email, "If we are notified that a law is being violated we will conduct an investigation and turn the investigative file over to the prosecuting attorney to make a file decision. We do not anticipate this occurring since there are no medical facilities in the unincorporated area of Pulaski County."

Little Rock Police Department officials didn't respond to questions on Friday. Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr., said in a text message that the city was evaluating its next steps. Earlier Friday, Scott had condemned in a statement the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe.

The Rogers and Fayetteville police departments couldn't be reached for comment on Friday.

Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.


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