Private Trust Created by Arkansas Gov. Huckabee To Pay for Abortions in Cases of Rape, Incest Not Used in Years

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 17 May 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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A private trust fund established in 1996 by Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) to pay for abortions in cases of rape and incest has not been used in years, with such procedures being paid for by Medicaid instead, the... Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Arkansas voters in 1988 approved an amendment to the state constitution saying that "[n]o public funds will be used to pay for abortions, except to save the mother's life." However, Congress in 1994 mandated that Medicaid fund abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Huckabee in July 1996 refused to use state Medicaid funds to pay for an abortion for a 15-year-old girl raped by her stepfather and created the Arkansas Medicaid Saving Trust Fund, which accepts private donations to pay for such procedures. Federal officials responded that the state would be in compliance with the Medicaid law as long as the necessary abortion services were provided, according to the Democrat-Gazette. U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson in a suit brought by abortion services providers in August 1996 ruled that the federal Medicaid law trumped the state constitutional amendment. However, Breck Hopkins -- an attorney for the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the state's Medicaid funding -- said he believes the Huckabee administration "never made an announcement about ceasing to use the trust," according to the Democrat-Gazette. Hopkins said there were "termination provisions" in the trust but that the state human services department likely put the documents in storage or destroyed them, according to the Democrat-Gazette. The trust still exists and has a balance of $1,530.66, according to Richard Bell, an accountant who administered the fund. Some state physicians who provide abortion-related services said they had never heard of the trust, and Huckabee would not comment on it, the Democrat-Gazette reports (Blomeley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 5/13).

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