From the Arkansas Advocate:
An Arkansas panel on Tuesday chose a design for the “monument to the unborn” at the state Capitol advocated by abortion opponents after months of frustration over the potential cost of the project.
The Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission chose a “living wall” design of plants surrounded by a retaining wall, drawing complaints from the artist whose similar proposal was initially chosen and then dropped by the panel.
The design the commission backed by the commission Tuesday came from nearly identical proposals submitted by the lawmakers who sponsored the first-of-its-kind 2023 law requiring the privately funded monument on state Capitol grounds.
Hot Springs Village artist Lakey Goff said her idea of a “living wall” of plants and speakers with waterfall sounds should be built somewhere, such as Washington D.C., where a copy of the National Life Monument already stands.
Republican Rep. Mary Bentley of Perryville and Sen. Kim Hammer of Benton supported Goff’s initial proposal, which would have cost more than $900,000. Goff said she was disheartened that they submitted under their own names an idea strikingly similar to hers.
“There’s corruption and there’s deceit, and this system has got to be accounted for in the name of Jesus,” she said in an interview.
Hammer disputed Goff’s statement in an interview, saying “everything has been done in a transparent, open manner.”
“The one thing that needs to be clarified is that this was never about a living wall,” Hammer said. “It was about a monument to the unborn.”
The commission asked for new monument proposals in January due to slow fundraising and Goff’s attempt to copyright her initial design, which would make it unchangeable.
In March, Goff submitted to Secretary of State Cole Jester’s office an altered proposal with an estimated $345,000 price tag. Bentley and Hammer’s proposal would cost about $229,000, and there were four other submissions of varying costs and designs.
Jester will have to approve the commission’s choice before the project can move forward. The monument’s expected location is the grassy space behind the Capitol and to the north of the Supreme Court building.
The lawmakers’ proposal would be 8 feet by 16 feet, smaller than Goff’s proposal of 10 feet by 33 feet, and would not include speakers with waterfall sounds. The estimated $229,000 includes a $20,816 maintenance retainer, while maintenance for Goff’s design would have cost $33,500 per year.
The only other proposal the commission considered was a design of an empty tomb with engravings of fetuses on it. Commissioner Tony Leraris supported this proposal and voted against Bentley and Hammer’s.
The rest of the commission voted down the tomb idea because its projected cost was about $1 million.
“I think a lower-cost project [is something] people would get excited about and see it being achievable, knowing that if they go out and have a good fundraiser, they possibly can get to this pretty quickly,” commission Chair Stephen Bright said in an interview.
He said he hoped the commission would “stop kicking the can and hopefully get something resolved.”
The effort to raise private funds for the monument has garnered roughly $28,000 since May 2024, and $17,276 is currently in the monument’s trust fund after the state paid Development Consultants Inc. for preliminary engineering and plan development expenses.
Goff said she did the legwork to raise the funds specifically for her proposal, and she likened using the money for Bentley and Hammer’s proposal to theft with no accountability.
“What they have done is a disgrace, and it is unrighteous, and it is not in alignment with the will of God for the state of Arkansas,” Goff said.
The monument would commemorate abortions performed in Arkansas during the nearly 50 years Roe v. Wade was in effect until the Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling in 2022.
Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas called the proposed monument “an offensive and inappropriate use of public space.”
“At a time when Arkansas faces serious challenges affecting people’s everyday lives, efforts like this do nothing to support the dignity, autonomy, or wellbeing of Arkansans,” ACLU of Arkansas spokesperson Megan Bailey said Tuesday.
The proposal also drew complaints from a few Republican lawmakers who voted against the monument.
Bentley and Hammer’s living wall proposal includes a retaining wall surrounding the plants. The wall would be inscribed with a verse from Psalm 139.
The monument is moving forward as the state is appealing a recent decision ordering a Ten Commandments monument be removed from the Capitol grounds. A federal judge ruled in March that the state must take down the monument because it violates the First Amendment prohibition on laws favoring an establishment of religion. The order is on hold while the appeal is in progress.
