The poverty and rural nature of Arkansas has resulted in healthcare being unaffordable and inaccessible for many inhabitants. Arkansas now ranks 48th in the nation for the number of women in the state with access to health insurance. To complicate matters, many areas suffer from a lack of healthcare professionals and adequate facilities. During the past decade women’s health issues such as breast cancer have attracted more attention from professionals and the general public as the “Susan G. Komen ‘Race For The Cure’” demonstrates.

Reproduction stands at the forefront of women’s health issues. All too often the focus falls on birth control and abortion when the anatomical differences in women’s bodies affect every bodily function. The approval of the Pill, by the FDA in 1960, gave women the ability to control, more effectively, their family size as well as receive protection against heart disease and certain types of cancer. Since this time, numerous other types of birth control have been developed: Norplant, Depo-Provera, the female condom and most recently, Mifepristone. The 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade was, perhaps, the first time women had full legal control over their bodies. However, several years passed before all the barriers to birth control fell for women over eighteen in Arkansas.

Courtesy of a private collection

In 1972, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration instituted a new maternity leave policy, the first state agency to do so. The agency gave women the opportunity to use accumulated sick time to tailor their maternity leave to their specific needs, continue to be paid and then return to their job early (with doctor’s permission). Not until 1978 did President Carter make the Pregnancy Discrimination Act a part of Title 7, requiring employers to treat pregnant women as they did persons with a disability. Any “discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” would constitute sexual discrimination.

Women of the state have fewer cases of breast cancer, chlamydia and AIDS than women in the rest of the nation, but higher rates of diabetes, death from heart disease and lung cancer and poor mental health. Despite these factors women are living long lives—the state average is 76 years. Indicators on women’s health and well being in Arkansas place the state 43rd in the nation. These numbers emphasize the need for the state to give more economic support and scholarly attention to women’s health issues.

“Every woman should have a clear understanding of birth control and be able to access it to plan their families.”