Arkansas has once again ranked first on a list from Americans United for Life, a national anti-abortion group, and Gov. Sarah Sanders is celebrating.
It’s apparently Arkansas’s sixth consecutive year as the “most pro-life state in America,” according to a press release from the governor. “Pro-life is whole life, and I’m proud that for the past six years, Arkansas has ranked number one in the nation – not just in protecting the unborn, but in preserving life from conception to natural conclusion,” she said.
(For anyone wondering what the governor means by “natural conclusion,” it’s what most of us call “death.” Americans United for Life is mostly focused on abortion, but it also opposes doctor-assisted suicide for the sick or dying.)
Arkansas has a legitimate claim to the title. Its draconian trigger law — which took effect almost immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 — contains no exceptions for rape, incest or situations in which a mother’s health is compromised. Abortion here is legal only when a mother’s life is threatened, a vague standard that can force women to continue carrying unviable pregnancies until their health has sufficiently deteriorated to require medical intervention.
But that’s what the law says. In the real world, abortion hasn’t gone away. Two reports released earlier this year by national groups that support reproductive rights said that at least 5,650 Arkansans received abortions in 2024 — an increase from the years before the near-total ban went into effect.
How could that be? Some women are traveling out of state to get procedures. Many more are ordering abortion pills in the mail, often after using telehealth to consult with doctors in other states. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has used the power of his office to target out-of-state providers sending mail-order abortion pills to Arkansas, but it’s unclear whether his efforts have had much effect, as a quick Google search will demonstrate.
Perhaps that’s why the governor places so much emphasis on the sheer number of laws the state has on the books. “Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Arkansas has passed more than 65 laws to protect the dignity of human life,” Sanders’ press release says.
She also bragged on a pair of new laws passed earlier this year, one “to prohibit abortions performed due to an unborn child’s race” and another “to prohibit giving a pregnant woman abortion drugs without her consent.” They’re little more than theater, but they allow the state to keep touting its pro-life bona fides.
Then there’s the question of what happens between birth and “natural conclusion,” to use the governor’s turn of phrase. Arkansas’s infant mortality rate is the second highest in the country, ahead only of Mississippi. Our maternal mortality figures are also among the worst in the U.S.
Sanders’ announcement Monday highlighted a law she championed this spring, the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act, that aims to improve those dismal numbers. It put $13 million in state money (along with matching federal funds) toward making it easier for pregnant women to get on Medicaid, guaranteeing coverage of certain services, and boosting payments to doctors and hospitals.
The bill was a good step, but it was just as notable for what it didn’t contain: An extension of postpartum coverage for new moms. Every state in the country except Arkansas and Wisconsin now allow women who are on pregnancy Medicaid to keep their coverage for a full year after giving birth. Arkansas kicks them off after just 60 days.
Some Republicans in the Legislature have pushed for Arkansas to join the rest of the U.S. in extending pregnancy Medicaid for 12 months postpartum. But for some reason, Sanders is dead set against it; she worked to sink bills in 2023 and in 2025 that would have extended coverage for new mothers.
The governor is also trying to put in place a new work requirement in ARHOME, a separate Medicaid program, that will likely cause thousands of Arkansans to lose health insurance. And she’s supported spending cuts at the federal level that will lead to thousands more Arkansans losing Medicaid or being priced out of buying health insurance. “Pro-life” is a strange and slippery concept.
