It’s hard to believe but North Little Rock State Legislator Carlton Wing voted to allow healthcare professionals to discriminate against patients and to DENY medical services based on personal “morals” reasons. Thankfully, despite Rep. Wing’s effort, the bill to encourage legal medical discrimination in Arkansas failed. Wing’s vote cast him in the extreme, pitting him against a bi-partisan group of pragmatic, common-sense lawmakers. Wing only won his seat by 16 votes in 2020…Pulaski County & Arkansas will have better representation after the 2022 election.
Wing chose not to listen to the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and medical and mental health groups from across Arkansas. Instead he chose to allow medical staff – from receptionists, to pharmacists, to surgeons – to deny care to Arkansans. The bill would have allowed any medical worker, even employees within ethical clinics, to choose to deny care for any reason: beliefs about COVID; religious differences; political differences; etc.
A doctor could refuse to treat someone because they go to a different church, or a nurse could deny care because someone had a different belief about the COVID issue. That’s not right for Arkansas or our families. We are better than this and we can do better than this.
Committee votes are normally done on voice votes and not shared with the public. But a roll call vote made sure we could catch Rep. Carlton Wing’s decision to try and legalize discrimination in Pulaski County’s medical clinics and hospitals.
The immediate danger to our right to receive medical care has subsided. But now that we know how Rep. Wing votes when he’s at the state Capitol, it’s up to us to do the work to make sure we get ready for the 2022 election. Wing only won by 16 votes in 2020. We can WIN this seat.
Our mission is to be ready to support our candidate so we can hit the ground running for the 2022 election. We do that by building our voter reach outreach programs and spreading the word about how our Representatives are voting at the state Capitol.
Arkansas deserves better than the representation we are getting. Arkansas will do better than the representation we are getting. That comes through a commitment to doing the work.
Thank you to the bi-partisan group of Arkansas lawmakers who voted to stop this bad bill (SB289).
Arkansas, Let’s Do The Work