The Arkansas Senate approved a bill Monday that would ban abortions at 18 weeks, making it one of the strictest abortion laws in the nation.
After an amendment last week to add exemptions for rape and incest, the Senate voted 28-6 in favor of the measure, called The Cherish Act. It now goes back to the House for a vote, and then to the governor who is expected to sign it.
Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson signed a law last month that would be triggered immediately if the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and would immediately ban almost all abortions in the state.
With the current makeup of the US Supreme Court, state legislatures are passing stricter abortion laws, many in hopes that they will be re-tried before the high court. For example, some states are approving “heartbeat bills,” that would ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, including Ohio (reintroduced with a new governor expected to sign it), Georgia and Tennessee. The Attorneys General from 20 states and the governor of Kentucky urged the court to hear an Alabama abortion case last month.