Arkansans take note of this from Think Progress: 

A new study of Ohio’s 2011 restrictive abortion law has verified what many state abortion advocates suspected for years: Instead of protecting women’s health, as the law promised, it put women’s health at greater risk.

This law relied on federal drug standards from 2000 to inform 2011 instructions and dosage for the abortion pill mifepristone. Even though new research found that these outdated rules were no longer the safest for women, conservative Ohio lawmakers pushed the law forward. This law also made abortions more complicated and expensive to obtain.

The study, published on Tuesday by University of California, San Francisco researchers, found that Ohio women who got an abortion after the 2011 law went into place were three times more likely to need extra health care during or after the procedure.

Why care about Ohio? Because the Arkansas legislaturein 2015  tried to force this same ill-advised and outdated regimen on Arkansas women in the name of their health. A federal court enjoined enforcement of the law, but Attorney General Leslie Rutledge fights on to preserve the part of the law that requires hospital admitting privileges for places that distribute the miscarriage-inducing pills. An FDA change now allows updated protocol on dispensation, effectively killing that part of the law.

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Said a researcher:

“This study supports that lawmakers need to use scientific research to create health laws, especially evidence-based studies,” she said. “We still have a long ways to go.”

Who needs evidence when you have faith?

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