Don’t get pregnant in Arkansas — unless you plan on keeping it.

The Arkansas legislature recently passed a law that bans abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The bill, originally vetoed by Arkansas’ Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, became law after the Republican dominated legislature overturned the veto.

This makes Arkansas the most restrictive state in the country when it comes to abortion laws.

So why 12 weeks?

Allegedly, this is the point during gestation when the fetal heartbeat can be detected for the first time by ultrasound.

Arkansas is the most recent in a long line of red states trying to effectively ban abortion by restricting the “abort by” date. First, you couldn’t abort past the second trimester, then it was 20 weeks, and now it’s 12 — all of the deadlines supposedly based on scientific evidence.

It all goes back to Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court upheld a woman’s right to have an abortion and the states know that Roe v. Wade will never be struck down.

So what do they do? Essentially, a de facto abortion ban. Twelve weeks is three months, or the first trimester, and many women aren’t even aware they’re pregnant until some time into that period. 

The deadline gives young and impressionable women far less time than is due to make arguably the most important decision of their lives.

This abortion nonsense is cyclical. Every year, one of the southern states decides they’re going to be the soap box for the religious right. And every year, these types of laws are struck down in federal courts as unconstitutional.

So, in defense of women everywhere, let’s look at the hypothetical life cycle of an Arkansas failed abortion. 

Conception: a child is conceived. Its mother, a pregnant teen without a stable income, supportive family or spouse faces a tough decision. To abort or not to abort, that is the question.

The child’s father has taken off, her family has shunned her for being a jezebel, and she has no education because she grew up in Arkansas. There are few prospects for this poor girl.

So she decides to abort the pregnancy because she knows she doesn’t have the money or support to provide this child with a respectable upbringing.

But she can’t, because the state says no abortions after 12 weeks, and even though that fetus won’t be self-aware for at least two and a half more years, she is forced by the government to give birth against her will.

For as much as Republicans hate government, they sure do like using it to marginalize gays, women and minorities. I digress.

The baby is born into poverty, like many children in the South. Arkansas has the third-highest poverty rating in the country, with 18.4 percent living below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census data. That’s essentially one in five.

So for every five children born in Arkansas, one will go hungry most nights. 

Back to my rant: This child grows up in a home where education isn’t valued. Surrounded by poverty, this child turns to crime as a teen. He or she is arrested and convicted of a minor charge, but without the ability to afford a proper attorney, ends up in prison.

Now, we have an individual who is costing the taxpayers nearly $50,000 a year to feed and house, but it’s OK because he or she is in a privately owned prison funded by the state. Crime is profitable now, it’s good for the economy. It’s the new housing bubble.

The now-grown-up child may get out in a few years, but without the education or resources to climb the economic ladder, he or she returns to crime and ends up in jail again.

Yes, this is hypothetical. And yes, it may seem a bit far-fetched if you don’t know any poor people. It won’t be the case for every child who isn’t aborted, but it absolutely will be the case for some, if not most. 

Rich people with options are not the ones seeking abortions. 

So how do we resolve this? Is it by restricting abortions? Absolutely not.

The way you restrict abortions isn’t through legislation. It’s by reducing the need for them. If Arkansas would spend half the energy tackling poverty as it does policing women, abortion numbers would decrease on their own.

Poverty and a lack of education (and probably abstinence-only education) are responsible for unplanned pregnancies and subsequent abortions.

Tackle poverty and you tackle abortion. Ignore the poor and watch it rise.