Study: Arizona ranks in bottom 10 in health, reproductive care outcomes for women

Arizona ranks 40th in the country for health and reproductive care outcomes for women, according to a new study released by the Commonwealth Fund.

In other categories, the state ranks 46th on coverage, access and affordability and 42nd on health care quality and prevention for women.

“Women’s health in the U.S. is in a very fragile state,” said Joseph Betancourt, the Commonwealth Fund’s president. “There are stark disparities in women’s access to quality health care among states across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines.”

The Commonwealth Fund is a foundation working to improve the quality and access of the United States health-care system. This is the group’s first time creating a women’s health and reproductive care scorecard.

Arizona placed 48th in the country for women ages 18-44 without a routine checkup in the past year and 49th for women ages 18-44 without a usual source of care.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade “has further fractured women’s health care access and dramatically affected the ability of providers to treat pregnancy complications.”

Those changes are important for Arizonan women, as the state also ranks 49th in the country for infants born with congenital syphilis per 100,000 live births, the study found. The state ranks 45th for the rate of women ages 15-44 per 100,000 female population to have syphilis, as well.

Part of that could be due to the state’s low ranking for health insurance coverage. Arizona ranks 44th in the country for the percentage of women aged 19-64 without health insurance coverage, with 13% not being covered.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

More than that, however, 32% of women ages 18-44 did not have one or more person they thought of as their personal health-care provider. That puts Arizona at 49th in the country for that category.

“It serves as a glaring reminder that where you live matters to your health and health care,” Commonwealth Fund President Betancourt said. “While some states undoubtedly are championing women’s continued access to vital health and reproductive services, many others are failing to ensure that women can get and afford the health care they need.”

Typically, the top performing states tended to be in the northeast, with Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island finishing on top. The fund found that typically, areas with stricter abortion bans, such as the south, tended to score worse on most women’s health rankings. Mississippi, the state where the U.S. Supreme Court case to overturn Roe v. Wade originated from, ranked last on the list.

“Women (in southern states) tend to experience worse health outcomes on average, had less access to care and reproductive health services than in other states and tended to receive lower quality care,” said David Radley, a senior scientist with the Commonwealth Fund.

Arizona law bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest. While that isn’t the strictest law in the nation — some states have six-week restrictions — it seems to have brought the state down in quality of care, according to the study.

“Tighter limits and additional bans on abortion are certain to drive more maternal and reproductive health care providers to shut down or leave their states, deepening the crisis of access to maternity care,” the report says. “Abortion bans threaten American’s future access to care across all medical specialties.”