The absurdity of Arkansas’s anti-abortion law hit the national stage on Tuesday when ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism site, retold the story of a woman who almost died when doctors declined to treat her emergency for fear of being jailed and fined.
The story is part of the publication’s Life of the Mother series that highlights how abortion bans, in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, have led to doctors and other healthcare professionals to withhold necessary care over legal concerns, even though they know the expectant mother will be put at higher risk of life-threatening infections and even death by their inaction.
It is a story familiar to Arkansas Times readers: Emily Waldorf found out she was pregnant in July 2024. At the 17-week mark, something happened. She began to bleed and knew something didn’t feel right in her cervix. She went to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville and was told she was going to lose the baby but that they couldn’t do anything to help end the pregnancy for fear of running afoul of the state’s abortion law. She persisted, even calling Gov. Sarah Sanders’ office, but Sanders declined to intervene.
The no-exceptions law in Arkansas kicked into gear in June 2022 when a so-called trigger law the state had passed took effect following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Sanders likes to brag that Arkansas is the “most pro-life state in the country,” with an abortion ban that has no exception for rape or incest. The problem for Waldorf and other women in her situation is that the state’s law is so vague that doctors have to second guess themselves and consult hospital lawyers to determine when and if they can legally step in. In many cases, they have to wait for the mother’s health to deteriorate to near-death levels. And some mothers die.
“The University of Arkansas Medical Sciences,” according to the ProPublica story, “shared its frequently asked questions on abortion policy that stated, in part, “Under Arkansas law, may an abortion be performed if the mother’s life is at risk? It depends.” Only abortions “necessary” to preserve a patient’s life are allowed, not ones that could prevent “possible” emergencies, according to the hospital’s general counsel.
The ProPublica story quotes Dr. Jody Steinauer, a professor of OB-GYN at the University of California, San Francisco who studies the impacts of abortion bans.“Hospital leaders and institutional lawyers are basically interpreting these laws so conservatively, and so worried about a criminal charge, that they have forgotten about basic professionalism values of healthcare,” she said.
Waldorf and four other women filed a lawsuit in January against the state of Arkansas, the governor and several other public officials.
The lawsuit contends Arkansas officials have refused to allow the state’s citizens to vote on abortion access, have refused to provide clarity or guidance to medical providers on the scope of the ban, and have forced Arkansans to travel well beyond the state’s borders to obtain abortion services. These realities, the lawsuit alleges, amount to an unconstitutional infringement of the Arkansas Constitution’s “inherent and inalienable rights” of “enjoying and defending life and liberty” and “of pursuing their own happiness.”
“I’m never going to apologize for being pro-life,” the lawsuit quotes Sanders as saying in regard to exceptions. “When we start picking and choosing when we [protect life] I think that really takes away from who we are as a society.”
You can read ProPublica’s story here, there’s no paywall.
