Arkansas Ranked Near Bottom of States in Maternal Health Scorecard

A new report that ranks states for women’s health and reproductive care places Arkansas near the bottom.

The Commonwealth Fund’s 2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care gives Arkansas an overall ranking of 47^th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Ranking lower than Arkansas, in descending order, are Nevada and Oklahoma (tied for 48^th), Texas, and Mississippi.

Massachusetts is ranked No. 1 in the report. Rounding out the top 5 are Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

The Commonwealth Fund states in the report that it developed the first-ever state scorecard to track trends in women’s health over time and document how policy choices and judicial decisions may impact access to timely health care.

The nonprofit organization used 32 different metrics to assess states’ performance across three areas: health and reproductive care outcomes; healthcare quality and prevention; and coverage, access, and affordability. In those areas, Arkansas is ranked 50^th, 48^th, and 35^th, respectively.

Where Arkansas Ranks Poorly in Women’s Health

Among the 32 metrics, Arkansas is ranked 51^st — the very bottom — in one category: the size of its maternity care workforce. Arkansas has 52.1 maternity care providers per 100,000 women ages 15-44, compared to the national average of 78.9 providers per 100,000 birthing-age women.

The report also ranks Arkansas 50^th in infant mortality — ahead of only Mississippi — with a rate of 8.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The U.S. average is 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Among Arkansas’s other worst-performing categories are the percentage of women ages 18 to 64 who report being in fair or poor health — Arkansas is 48^th with 22%, compared to the national average of 17% — and the rate of women ages 15 to 44 with syphilis per 100,000 women, which also lands Arkansas at 48^th with 188, compared to the national average of 78. Syphilis rates in Arkansas tripled from 2019 to 2022.

Arkansas was among three states — Mississippi and Alabama being the others — that reported lower-than-average postpartum depression screening but also the highest self-reported postpartum depression. Our 100 Arkansas Moms series showed that 1 in 4 pregnant women in Arkansas reported experiencing depression during pregnancy in 2021.

Where Arkansas Ranks Well in Women’s Health

Arkansas’s highest ranking is for women of birthing age with healthcare providers. The report ranks Arkansas 10^th, with only 15% of women ages 18 to 44 reporting they do not have someone they think of as their personal healthcare provider. The national average is 23%.

Another high-performing category for the state is healthcare coverage during pregnancy. The report ranks Arkansas 11^th, with only 1.4% of women with a recent live birth having no health insurance coverage during pregnancy. The national average is 2.6%. The state’s Medicaid program is a major contributor to health insurance coverage for birthing women in Arkansas, paying for about 40% of all births. However, Arkansas remains the only state in the nation not to extend Medicaid coverage beyond 60 days postpartum.

The report ranks Arkansas 13^th in routine doctor visits among women of birthing age. Thirteen percent of Arkansas women ages 18 to 44 report not visiting a doctor for a routine checkup in the past two years, the same percentage as the national average.

Improving Women’s Health in Arkansas

The report underscores Arkansas’s challenges in maternal health, already the focus of renewed attention among the state’s policymakers. Earlier this year, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders formed the Arkansas Strategic Committee for Maternal Health, a panel charged with studying the issue and developing strategies for addressing it.

To aid policymakers in making evidence-based decisions, ACHI has been collecting and analyzing information about the many risks Arkansas mothers and infants face. See our Maternal and Infant Health topic page to view our findings on issues such as severe maternal morbidity, travel time to delivery facilities, and what a healthy birthing journey should look like.