Press Release
LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued a statement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s judgment in Rutledge v. Little Rock Family Planning Services vacating a lower court order blocking Arkansas’s ban on abortions performed solely on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis and ordering Little Rock Family Planning Services to pay the State of Arkansas for filing costs associated with seeking Supreme Court review. This Supreme Court victory comes on the heels of the dismissal of Planned Parenthood v. Gillespie in federal district court, where Arkansas terminated Planned Parenthood’s participation in the State’s Medicaid program. Since the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June, Attorney General Rutledge has also been successful in ending litigation challenging the dismemberment abortion ban and the total abortion ban (SB6).
“For the last two years, Arkansas has been the most prolife state in the union because of the work of the dedicated staff at the Attorney General’s Office,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “After certifying the Supreme Court’s overruling of Roe and Casey, which ended elective abortion in Arkansas, my office jumped into action to strike all remaining abortion lawsuits. I have always advocated for the lives of unborn children because no baby should ever face the unimaginable and horrifying fate of abortion.”
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 on committees for Consumer Protection, Criminal Law and Veterans Affairs for the National Association of Attorneys General. She also served as the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
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.