GARLAND COUNTY, Ark. – On the agenda of the Garland County Quorum Court meeting was a resolution to make the county a pro-life county.

The resolution was postponed indefinitely. Around 300 people on both sides of the issue were given an opportunity to speak on it. This resolution would not have been legally binding, just a statement of opinion.

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A similar resolution was presented in committee last February but did not get out of committee and to the full quorum court. This year the resolution was presented through the ordinance committee and made it to the quorum court.

One by one people shared their thoughts with the justices of the peace. Justice Dayton Myers sponsored this resolution. He said the county Republican Committee unanimously passed a resolution asking all justices of the peace to vote in favor of the resolution.

“The Arkansas abortion amendment is one reason I bring it up to kind of counteract that here in Garland County, and the other reason is to give those JPs the chance to rectify themselves in the eyes of the Republican Party,” Myers said.

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A representative from the Democratic Party of Garland County, Michele Gates Roberts, said that having justices of the peace vote on this statement of opinion is dividing and shouldn’t be an issue of the quorum court.

“We see this resolution is really being frivolous,” she said. “It’s a waste of taxpayer time and money basically the resolution is an opinion of one or two of the justices of the peace and does not fully represent the whole county.”

If the resolution had passed, Garland County would have joined several other counties in Arkansas that have passed similar resolutions.

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Outside of the quorum court meeting, people were gathering signatures to put the Arkansas abortion amendment on the November 2024 ballot.

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