A woman turns 18. Her first gynecologist appointment is supposed to be a routine step in her healthcare, awaiting her. A step that is meant for a lifelong form of security in health and livelihood.
In Kentucky, that step becomes fatal, but does Kentucky really care about that?
Across the Commonwealth, women’s healthcare continues to remain limited. Out of the 120 counties in Kentucky, 72 lack an OB-GYN, according to WDRB. This means that 60% of Kentucky’s counties, which are predominantly rural, do not live in a place that has access to pap tests, clinical breast exams or prenatal checkups without driving hours away.
To some, this sounds like just an “inconvenience,” but in reality, this is a crisis affecting Kentuckians daily.
According to March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization in the United States dedicated to improving mothers’ health, almost 46% of Kentucky’s counties are classified as “maternity care deserts.” This means that in those areas, they have no access to birthing facilities or maternity care providers.
With almost half the state being a “maternity care desert,” we are risking simple access to healthcare that is crucial to women across the Commonwealth.
Not only that, but nearly 30% of women in Kentucky did not have access to a birthing hospital in a 30-minute radius, more than triple the national average. This is affecting Kentuckians daily, but this concern needs to be targeted towards rural Kentuckians.
The Kentuckiana Health Collaborative reported that there is an expectation that maternity care, access to prenatal care and women’s healthcare will worsen within the coming years, especially in Appalachia.
Many women in rural areas, according to the Kentuckiana Health Collaborative, don’t even attempt to initiate women’s healthcare, as access and reliable transportation hinder lower-class citizens. The expectation for women to drive hours for a simple right is disgraceful in itself.
With Kentucky continuing to be the state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, 34.6 per 100,000 live births, when the average in the United States is 26.3, according to March of Dimes.
This rate only furthers the question of whether Kentucky and its current state of healthcare are considering these numbers are statistics or women’s lives.
These aren’t just numbers; they are women.
What does this truly mean for Kentucky and its lack of women’s healthcare options?
It means women from Fleming, Kentucky, have to drive hours to get to the nearest specialist. A majority of those rural areas have to drive to Lexington to simply go to their OB-GYN appointment for their yearly checkup. It means a teenager who could have been taught about her own body loses access.
It means preventable deaths, healthcare risks and complications could have been avoided, but aren’t.
According to the Kentucky Lantern, Kentucky ranks as one of the lowest nationally for women’s healthcare and reproductive health. However, this doesn’t surprise me after years of neglect from changes to produce better healthcare for women.
This isn’t just affecting women, but it drives our providers away, like Lilly Deljoo, a third-year medical student from Kentucky.
According to her writing in Med Page Today, restrictive laws are driving people who want to work in rural areas away, as their practices are being consistently restricted.
Physicians fear prosecution from the mere duties that come with the jobs they wish to have when restricted by states like Kentucky, like Deljoo, who would rather avoid Kentucky entirely to be the OB-GYN she aspires to be.
This isn’t just a failure that comes from Kentucky’s policies, but of its values that disregard Kentuckians. A state that criminalizes doctors from simply doing their jobs as healthcare workers to benefit their patients is simply anti-human.
Kentucky’s neglect of women’s healthcare isn’t a quiet thing occurring behind us; it is done directly in Kentuckians’ faces. As a Kentuckian, I fear for the women who live in areas without access, without the ability and freedom to merely see a doctor.
If Kentucky truly believes in its people, in its values, it must start valuing the livelihood of women and that includes their healthcare. Kentuckians deserve better and that remains clear to me.
The question isn’t whether Kentucky can fix this; it’s whether they care enough to try. Until it happens, Kentucky continues to show us the same thing; women’s lives are expendable in the essence of healthcare.
