House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee Part 2
Video
Transcript
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 5, 2026
Make sure that each bill has an opportunity to be heard before we go home today. Representative, excuse me, Senator Irvin, you may take your seat at the end of the
table. We will be hearing Senate Bill 840. Thank
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
0:19
you, Madam Chair. You do have an amendment with this bill, I believe. the amendment was upon the request of my colleagues in the senate to strike some of
the inflammatory language in the findings of the bill as well as at the very end of the bill to strike some language that was about legislative intent so that has been done and
Speaker 5
0:40
that's what the amendment you would have on the bill all right we'll get that amendment handed out Thank you.
Ward Law, you're recognized. Motion to approve the amendment. We have a motion to approve the amendment. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Representative Irvin, I'm sorry.
Speaker 5
2:02
I'm tired, I think. So Senator Irvin, if you
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
2:07
will, go ahead and present your bill as amended. That's okay. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Colleagues and representatives, I appreciate you taking time and hearing this bill today. This bill is the Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act.
There are abortions being performed in the state of Arkansas and throughout the country that are using the technique of inducing drugs. And so there's a combination of these medications that are given to the woman to abort the pregnancy. And the whole premise of the bill is simply to make sure that those that are providing these medications do so by following FDA protocol and FDA drug labeling.
And that they're done there on site and that there's follow-up with those drugs as they're being prescribed. described. You might ask for the purpose of the bill, and it's just simply a women's health safety issue. I do believe that there is a purpose for the Federal Drug Administration, and I believe that their research is founded and that we should follow what's recommended on drug usage, on drug labeling, and what their protocol is. I'll take any questions.
Representative Butch Wilkins
Unverified
3:26
Representative Wilkins, you're recognized. Irwin, are these drugs administered by a doctor now?
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
3:38
Yes, they're supposed to be administered by a provider, yes, by a doctor. Are they administrated by a doctor now? Yes, and this bill would ensure that they would be administered by a doctor. I know there are reports that they're being administered by other
Representative Butch Wilkins
Unverified
3:56
folks inside of a facility. But now if a doctor thinks that this patient, you're asking that they follow FDA regulations?
Yes, sir. But if a doctor thinks there needs to be a deviation from what FDA recommends for his particular patient,
are we not interfering with the bill that you just run a few minutes ago, the doctor-patient relation?
Speaker 26
4:21
So I think it's a little different in that when you go
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
4:26
for chemotherapy, that there's a regimen that is followed, and it's a pretty strict regimen. And so this is real similar to that.
And there's a difference between using Nexium or Prolecek or something to that degree. But this is a high-dosage drug. I mean, these are drugs that are inducing the abortion. The results and the side effects can be very serious, heavy bleeding, and there is a risk of infection, and there have been deaths related to this. You know, I agree with you. I mean,
Representative Butch Wilkins
Unverified
5:00
I don't think they ought to be administered at all if I had my perfect world.
But the perfect world is now they are allowed, and shouldn't we trust our doctors?
Your husband's a doctor. Shouldn't we trust our doctors to administer a drug that can be dangerous? And for his particular patient, I'm sure that FDA don't have a handle on every patient that comes through a clinic. Do they? I mean, they don't really know that patient individually.
That's what bothers me about this a little
Speaker 28
5:43
bit. Okay. I think you're asking, could you repeat your question?
Representative Butch Wilkins
Unverified
5:53
Okay. I just want to make sure. What I said was, shouldn't an individual doctor have that, with his relationship with his patient, shouldn't he have the ability to deviate from
FDA regulations if he thought that was best for this patient, for his patient?
Speaker 32
6:11
Well, I'll tell you, I mean, there's, you know, a lot of folks, a lot of
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
6:17
physicians will rely on what we have now has kind of become a standard, and you'll see that there's evidence-based medicine. That term is being used quite frequently now. And there are studies that are done on the usage of medications, and there are studies that are done based on what the FDA has recommended. When you're using off-labeling practices, I think there are cases where that's indicated. I would debate that this is a very different case than that
because a doctor that knows his patient that comes in on a regular basis is very different from a young woman that will just come to an abortion clinic because that generally is not a doctor-patient relationship that normally exists. In fact, if you would go into an emergency room situation or something, you've not seen that doctor before. where there's not a rapport there and there's not a relationship that's based, that there's a history or there's a chart on the patient or there's follow-up.
And so that's where I would see a difference in this, is that you don't have that history established with the patient. So it is different, and I believe it is. And I understand your point of view, and I'm here always on behalf of physicians. But this is a different case, and that's where I see the difference. If I may, Madam Chair, let me
Representative Butch Wilkins
Unverified
7:37
follow up one more time. If you'll
remember, Representative Wilkins, we do have a limited time. Okay. Thank you.
I'll pass, Jim. Thank you. I didn't mean to chill
Representative Buddy Lovell
Unverified
7:55
that. I'm sorry. Representative Lovell. Senator, thank you, Madam Chair. So, Senator Irvin, did you turn to the back page, page 7, and explain the, I guess, subchapter or the chapter 20 days, 16 days, 1308? Tell me what that
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
8:11
means. Yes, that's been amended. That's taken out of the bill. The amendment that we just accepted, that was amended out of the bill.
Senator Irvin, I don't think it's in
Speaker 38
8:22
your amendment. It's not in this amendment. It should have been
Speaker 5
8:30
amended out. I don't believe it has, ma'am. The amendment we have doesn't have
Speaker 26
8:40
it out. Is there another amendment that we have? It should have been stricken.
Representative Buddy Lovell
Unverified
8:52
We're voting on the bill as it is. As it is, yes, sir. So tell me what – explain to me what that
Speaker 26
9:02
paragraph on page 7 means. Again, that was one of the
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
9:07
things that I had instructed to be amended out of the bill as a promise to my colleague, Senator Harrelson. So I would like, if necessary, a verbal amendment to strike that. I'm sorry, Senator
Irvin. The House rules are different than the Senate rules, and we do not accept verbal amendments.
Representative Andy Mayberry
Unverified
9:25
Okay. Representative Mayberry, you're recognized. That actually was my question, Madam
Speaker 43
9:36
Chair. Representative Hall, you're recognized. Never mind, Madam
Chairman. I'm sorry. Immediate consideration. We have a motion for immediate consideration. That's non-debatable. All in favor indicate. I'm sorry. We don't have a motion. I'm sorry. I can't recognize that motion, Representative Lovell. We have a motion do pass from Representative Mayberry.
Representative Buddy Lovell
Unverified
10:00
Representative Lovell, do you have a
motion? Aye. Motion for immediate consideration. We have a motion for immediate consideration. It's non-debatable. All in favor of Senate Bill 840, as amended. Indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, no. No. Senator Irvin, you failed your bill. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to run one more bill. Representative Penartz is going to run Senator Files' bill, Senate Bill 638.
And then we will be meeting again after adjournment. Senator Penartz, you're recognized. Well, I like
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
10:41
to be called that, but I'm actually very proud of being a representative and my colleagues here. Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 638 is a bill that concerning the inclusion of service sinks in certain buildings, a lot of times you have small businesses who may have a commercial building, and they're like
less than 15 people at work in that office, and they use their normal bathrooms and restrooms as their service sinks. So this is a way to help small businesses by allowing where the proposed number of persons in that commercial building is less than 15 people to not have to go to the extra expense of putting the plumbing in for a service sink, and I've talked to a couple of small business people that said it is an expense that if they could have saved the dollars on when
they renovated the building, that would have helped them quite a bit. So I would ask, I'd be glad to try to respond to any questions. It passed the Senate 35-0, I think, and there weren't any questions on the floor of the House.
Members, do you have any questions? What's the pleasure of the committee? We have a motion due passed on Senate Bill 638. Anyone wishing to speak against the bill? Anyone wishing to speak for the bill?
If not, then the question before the committee is the passage of Senate Bill 638. All in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Representative Penarchi, you have passed your bill. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to be adjourned until the adjournment of the House, the session this afternoon. Upon adjournment, we will meet 10 minutes after adjournment. Madam Chair, my thanks to you
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified
12:36
and my thanks to my colleagues. You're very welcome.
Agenda
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Linda S. Tyler Chair
Unverified
Ann Laidlaw
Unverified
Speaker 5
Speaker 8
Representative Butch Wilkins
Unverified
Speaker 26
Speaker 28
Speaker 29
Speaker 32
Representative Buddy Lovell
Unverified
Speaker 38
Representative Andy Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 43
Representative Tracy Pennartz
Unverified