Is Sarah Huckabee Sanders America’s cruelest governor? I have to wonder because ever since she was elected governor in November 2022, she’s conducted a reign of terror on poor- and LGBTQ+ people. Oh, and children. She doesn’t seem to be all that fond of children, either. She’s done such things as kick 400,000 people off of Medicaid; rolled back child labor laws so that work permits are no longer required for children under 16; signed her own version of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and appointed Jacob Oliva, who engineered Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to lead Arkansas’ Department of Education.

Now she’s just kicked poor people in the teeth again. Especially pregnant poor women. Earlier this week she refused to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months. As Queerty explains, states must provide post-pregnancy Medicaid coverage for 60 days but nothing more. This, in a state that had the U.S.’s highest known rate of maternal mortality from 2018 to 2020, the CDC reports.

Sanders made a half-assed attempt to explain her rationale, saying the state needs to do a better job of transitioning new parents to other coverage when their Medicaid runs out, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. No, of course, she didn’t specify what that other coverage would be. If she did that it might make her seem a little bit kind when in reality she’s anything but that. I surmise she’s not really going to ever find that “other coverage.”

Social media users didn’t fail to note her hypocrisy.

I think if I led the state with the highest rate of maternal mortality in the US, I would quite simply use every policy lever at my disposal to keep women from dying. https://t.co/nTJn2RXQkI

— Greg Leding (@GregLeding) February 22, 2024

Cruelty is the point. https://t.co/8MVhbI7VIT

— Liza Yes 🌻 (@YesQuake) February 22, 2024

The follow up question should have been "what other coverage?"

Expecting working poor mothers to pay out of pocket for medical coverage is a foolish assumption. They'll just go without medical service.

— Joseph (@JJTrey) February 22, 2024

With the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered “extrauterine children” under state law, the lack of reproductive healthcare in many Southern states continues to dominate political discourse. Arkansas is one of 14 states in the country where abortion is banned entirely.

Reproductive rights are in a real mess in Southern states. That’s especially clear with the Alabama Supreme Court’s insane ruling that frozen embryos can be considered “extrauterine children” under state law. This extremism is dominating political discourse in these states, and Arkansas is among 14 states in the U.S. where abortion is completely banned. Sanders claims to be “pro-life” but she’s intent on making life hell for poor people who are about to become parents. Maybe her thinking is that if she makes obtaining healthcare more difficult for impoverished people they will quit having babies.

We all know that ain’t happening. Sex is a drive and so is the wish to have children. It’s what makes the human race go ’round. Even as we continue to overpopulate and overpopulate and OVERPOPULATE.

And Sanders is creating a hellscape for folks in the LGBTQ+ community, especially any aged 18 or younger. Arkansas was the first state to pass a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Fortunately, a federal judge struck this ruling down in June but Sanders’ administration is appealing the ruling. She’s delivered other blows — signing a law that prevents transgender teachers and students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identities. Oh, and gender-neutral terms such as “Latinx,” are no longer permitted to appear on state documents.

I fail to see how using terms like Latinx hurts anything but it gets her dander up obviously.

While Sanders is doing whatever she can to harm the LGBTQ+ community, she’s also keeping her state in the Dark Ages in other ways as well. Some of Arkansas’ 75 counties have no hospitals and there are only 35 hospitals in the state that offer labor and delivery units. And along with the fact that it had the highest rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. for those two years, the state also has the third infant mortality rate in the country, and it’s also one of only three states that doesn’t offer postpartum Medicaid coverage for a full year.

The state’s official motto is Regnat Populus, which if translated from Latin means “The People Rule.” Even though they surely don’t. Perhaps its new motto should be Arkansas: The Bend Over State. Because considering what Sanders is doing here, it’s the only appropriate motto I can think of.