WaPo: “In a state that touts itself as “the most pro-life state in the country,” where abortion is prohibited except to save the life of the mother, timber country in southeast Arkansas is an especially dangerous place to give birth.
Arkansas already has one of the nation’s worst maternal mortality rates, and mothers in this area die at a rate exceeding the state average. Ninety-two percent of recent maternal deaths were preventable,a state review committee found.
In November, two hospitalsin the regionabruptly closed their birthing units, sending patients like Sa’Ryiah scrambling to find a new obstetrician. And now she was in an ambulance at midnight, speeding through dark pine forests on a tensehalf-hour trip to a bigger hospital. Doctors were able to get her stabilized and eventually sent her home.
With a ride that long, “anything could have happened,” said Hajime White, one of the teen’s doulas. “When hospitals are turning you away and you have to go on to the next one, any complication can develop whether you’re in an ambulance or not. You’re putting the mother at risk and the baby at risk.””