Lawsuit says Arkansas' near-total ban on abortion violates state's constitution

Arkansas’ near-total abortion ban faced its first legal challenge Wednesday with a lawsuit from four women and a physician who argue the prohibition should be struck down in its entirety.

The state has banned abortion, with a narrow exception to save a pregnant person’s life, since June 2022 under a law that took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court said the ban violates the state’s constitutional protections for Arkansans.

Doctors told Emily Waldorf, one of the women suing over the ban, that the exception did not apply to her in September 2024 when she was 17 weeks pregnant and it became clear that she could not carry to term, the complaint states.

“My daughter was four at the time,” Waldorf, a Fayetteville resident, told the Arkansas Advocate in an interview. “I had her at home, who I was fighting to stay alive for, because I knew that I was going to lose the baby that I was pregnant with.”



https://arkansasadvocate.com/2026/01/28/lawsuit-says-arkansas-near-total-ban-on-abortion-violates-states-constitution/