Rep-elect Andy Mayberry (file photo) Brian Chilson

As promised, Rep.-elect Andy Mayberry (R-East End) has filed a bill that would virtually ban all second trimester abortions in Arkansas. As usual with such legislation, this one has a scary name: It’s the Arkansas Unborn Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act. But really, it’s a way for the legislature to unconstitutionally ban abortions performed using the dilation and evacuation procedure, which is used in the vast majority of second-term abortions.

The bill exempts pregnant women with a “serious health risk,” which it defines as facing death or the serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment.

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It sets out civil penalties for anyone performing such an abortion.

Similar bills have passed in West Virginia, Mississippi, Kansas and Oklahoma. Courts have blocked the laws in Kansas and Oklahoma.

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