Arkansas

The state of Arkansas has passed a legislation, banning almost all abortions in the state. Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson said he signed the law due to "overwhelming legislative support and my sincere and long-held pro-life convictions" after voicing concerns over the bill not including certain exceptions for certain cases. The new law only allows abortion if a mother's life is at risk.

“(The ban) is in contradiction of binding precedents of the US supreme court, but it is the intent of the legislation to set the stage for the supreme court overturning current case law,“ Hutchinson said. “I would have preferred the legislation to include the exceptions for rape and incest, which has been my consistent view, and such exceptions would increase the chances for a review by the US supreme court.”

The Republican senator for Arkansas Jason Rapert has contracted Covid-19 and has been hospitalised with pneumonia on July 24th.

While he previously shared an article on Facebook that has called the Covid-19 pandemic the "biggest political hoax in history" and criticised the mandatory mask order of the Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. He described the order "an overreach of executive power without consultation with the members of the Arkansas legislature".

After being hospitalised, he then released a statement saying that "we have all been doing our best to wear a mask, social distance and be careful like everyone else. This virus is serious and can attack anyone regardless of age or general health".

In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton said the "role of slavery can't be overlooked," and that America shouldn't be portrayed as "an irredeemably corrupt, rotten and racist country" but rather "as an imperfect and flawed land, but the greatest and noblest country in the history of mankind."

Cotton, who was seen as a possible presidential candidate for 2024, further stated: "We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction."