What should Arkansas do to improve the health of new mothers and their babies? That issue is getting more attention lately.
Arkansas has the nation’s highest maternal mortality rate, defined as deaths that occur because of pregnancy complications or within six weeks after birth. It also has the third highest infant mortality rate, with 309 babies dying in 2021, according to the March of Dimes. There were 8.6 deaths per 1,000 live births that year.
Dr. Joe Thompson, president and CEO of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, told me he’s optimistic Arkansas will take steps to improve those numbers. His board on Tuesday expressed its support for doulas, which help pregnant women navigate the birthing process. Walmart has started covering doulas for its employees nationwide. Another new group, Arkansans for Improving Maternal Health (AIM), recently was formed to address the issue.
Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, tried to pass a bill last year to get Arkansas to participate in a Biden administration policy that extends Medicaid postpartum coverage for lower-income new mothers to 12 months after birth.
Arkansas currently ensures those mothers are covered for 60 days. An analysis by the Department of Human Services last year found about 1,700 women were falling through the cracks and not being covered the rest of the year, Pilkington said. The federal government would pay for 70% of covering them, so its share would be $7.9 million while Arkansas’ would be $2.1 million.
Arkansas is one of the few states not yet participating. Legislators declined to pass Pilkington’s bill last year after debating whether another program was needed. Other issues included the fact that the fiscal impact statement arrived later in the session.
The fact that it’s a Biden-led program was not that big a deal. Pilkington noted that Republican governors are participating, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Which brings us to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. On CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, she was asked about the state’s ban on almost all abortions and about her pro-life convictions. She participated in the annual “March for Life” at the Capitol this past frigid Sunday. She also was asked about the effort to pass a constitutional amendment that would legalize abortion here.
Sanders said she was proud of Arkansas’ ranking as one of the nation’s most pro-life states and that she is “unapologetically pro-life.”
The host tied the abortion issue with the maternal health one and asked Sanders why she didn’t want those moms to get coverage for the full 12 months. In response, Sanders said, “I’m going to have to disagree with the premise of your question saying that I don’t want that.”
She didn’t specifically say she would support Pilkington’s bill. But she did say she wants the state to do what it can “during pregnancy and well after a child is born.” She said the state would continue looking at its options.
Pilkington is also pro-life. He’s a 33-year-old Catholic legislator who first started serving in the House of Representatives at age 26.
He would have been an interesting interview on “Face the Nation” because he doesn’t fit neatly into a political box if the issues of abortion and maternal health are combined. In 2021, for example, he sponsored and passed a bill allowing pharmacists to dispense contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription. He had tried unsuccessfully to pass it two years earlier.
That bill presented a moral quandary for him. Some of his fellow social conservatives would say it enables the activity that leads to pregnancies. His Catholic Church teaches against contraception, so some people asked him how he could support such a bill. His reasoning was that birth control is legal, and he’d rather people use it than get an abortion. But he was torn.
“It weighed on me a lot, tremendously,” he said. “I even went to confession afterwards and asked my priest about it because it was weighing so heavily on my heart after I passed it.”
Pilkington plans again to propose the Medicaid coverage extension, perhaps in the fiscal session that starts April 10. He’s confident it eventually will pass – perhaps as a standalone bill or maybe as part of a comprehensive maternal health effort led by the Department of Human Services.
“I tell people all the time, I want to take Arkansas from the worst place to have a baby to the best place to have a baby,” he said.
We can all agree about that.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 15 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevebrawner.
