Love the fetus, hate the child. The Republican Governor of Arkansas’ response when asked about the dismal infant mortality rate in her state was to tout these sham "crisis pregnancy centers" which masquerade as health clinics and lie to women to try to keep them from having abortions.
Sanders made an appearance on this Sunday's Face the Nation, and good for Margaret Brennan for bringing up the topic in regard to the right wanting to pretend they're "pro-life," but the lack of follow up when Sanders brought up the crisis pregnancy centers was abysmal.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So your state – you're talking about the sanctity of life. Your state had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country according to the CDC, up until about 2021. Arkansas is one of the few states that hasn't extended postpartum care for mothers. Why don't you want those moms to get care for a full 12 months, as is being offered, instead of just 60 days?
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: Well, I'm going to have to disagree with the premise of your question, saying that I don't want that. I certainly want us to do everything that we can to help during pregnancy and well after a child is born, which is why we have done things like focus on the foster and adoption care. We've put significant funding into our pregnancy crisis centers.
We're focusing on things that help our mothers, including bring your kids to work at state government. We've expanded maternity leave for state employees. We included that in our education package. We have taken a number of steps that are very positive in this front, and we're going to continue to do that as long as I'm governor.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But the states of Mississippi, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, they did extend for 12 months, rather than the 60 days. So, I'm just wondering, specifically on that option, why you opted out?
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: We're going to continue to look at options that we feel like best help people here in the state of Arkansas. We've done that in a number of ways, and we're going to continue to do that over the course of hopefully the next seven years while I'm governor of Arkansas.
As Raw Story noted, Sanders' talking points don't match up to the statistics in her state:
Like many so-called "pro-life" states, Arkansas suffers from a high mortality rate for mothers, but also for pre-term births. The March of Dimes, an organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies, gave the state an "F" grade for pre-term births. The infant mortality rate significantly increased in 2021. It is 8.6 when the U.S. rate is 5.4.
"Birthing people in Arkansas have a high vulnerability to poor outcomes and are most vulnerable due to overall physical health," the report (PDF) says.
