Jerry Cox of the religious right Family Council wrote in a newsletter recently that misdemeanor assault charges had been filed against an employee of a Little Rock abortion provider for “nearly” striking two anti-abortion protestors who’ve long made things difficult for women going to Little Rock Family Planning Services.

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Denise Shewmake and Kimberly Puska told police Natalie Tvedten tried to strike them with her car July 13, 2021 while they were praying on a public easement outside the medical office, now out of the abortion business thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that breathed life into Arkansas’s abortion ban. They weren’t struck, but one dropped some materials the car ran over. Tvedten didn’t give a statement to police before arrest warrants were issued.

Family Council-supplied video, from a police camera, shows the two on the driveway leading into the clinic and then a close encounter with the car as it turned in.

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The case went to trial July 6 in district court before Judge Melanie Martin. Tvedten’s attorney, Reggie Koch, said, and the online record reflects, that she was found not guilty on both counts.

 

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