Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, signed a law Friday protecting unborn babies from abortion starting at 18 weeks of pregnancy. The law includes exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies. It will take effect 90 days after the Arkansas General Assembly formally adjourns this year’s session, which is expected to occur in May. The state already has a law on the books that safeguards babies from abortion at 20 weeks of gestation.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide numbers continued to rise last year in Belgium and in Oregon, according to official reports released last month.

Belgium’s euthanasia rate increased last year to 2,357 deaths, up from 2,309 in 2017. While that’s a small increase from the previous year, it’s more than double the country’s 2010 euthanasia rate of 954.

On the last day of the year in A.D. 406, aided by a land bridge of frozen ice, a band of barbarians crossed from the east to the west bank of the Rhine and into the territory of a doomed Roman Empire. No one knew the empire was doomed that day. The sun still rose over Mainz on Jan. 1 as it always had; peasants of the manor still ate potage and colewort in drafty cruck houses, mended tools and fences, and for a pastime may have skated on a horse shin bone.

A coalition of 21 states is suing the Trump administration for new rules preventing Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving some taxpayer dollars.

At least 22 states, irked by the Trump administration’s move to defund Planned Parenthood, are challenging the U.S. government’s authority to direct family planning funds toward clinics that focus on healing, not hurting.

A New York moment:

The Trump administration issued proposed rules last week that would disqualify Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving federal family planning funds.