Rutledge Supports Law Protecting Women’s Health
Says, ‘Women deserve to know all medical procedures are performed in the safest way possible.’
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge led a 20-state coalition in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court supporting Louisiana’s efforts to ensure that abortion procedures are only performed under the safest conditions possible for patients.
“Women deserve to know all medical procedures are performed in the safest way possible,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “Louisiana’s admitting-privileges requirement is a common-sense way of ensuring that abortions are only performed by competent practitioners in conditions that minimize patient risks.”
Louisiana state law requires abortion practitioners to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility.
Attorney General Rutledge previously successfully defended Arkansas’s commonsense requirement that medication abortion practitioners have a contract with a physician who agrees to handle emergencies and complications associated with abortion-inducing drugs. In 2015, that requirement had been blocked by a district court, but Attorney General Rutledge successfully appealed that order and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit unanimously overturned that order. The United States Supreme Court then declined to review the Eighth Circuit’s order and Arkansas’s requirement went into effect.
These laws are not about overturning Roe v. Wade or restricting access to legal abortions. They are about ensuring that if a woman chooses to undergo an abortion, that procedure is only performed in the safest manner possible for the patient.
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn in on January 13, 2015, she is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected as Attorney General. She was resoundingly re-elected on November 6, 2018. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud. Further, she has held Rutledge Roundtable meetings and Mobile Office hours in every county of the State each year and launched a Military and Veterans Initiative. She has led efforts to roll back government regulations that hurt job creators, fight the opioid epidemic, teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves as Chairwoman of the National Association of Attorneys General Southern Region and re-established and co-chairs the National Association of Attorneys General Committee on Agriculture. As the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, she remains active on the Executive Board.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for former Governor Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.
