THE FRONT

DISPATCH FROM THE TRENCHES

DR. CHAD TAYLOR ON THE CONSEQUENCES, BOTH INTENDED AND NOT, OF ARKANSAS’S ABORTION BAN

Unless you’re an unhappily or unhealthfully pregnant person, the end of abortion rights in Arkansas is probably not an issue occupying your thoughts at all waking hours. Should it be? Arkansas’s near-total abortion ban went into effect this summer, and the consequences — both intended and unintended — are already quite grave. Dr. Chad Taylor, a boardcertified OB-GYN and outspoken advocate for reproductive rights, talked with us about the brutality wrought by the trigger law establishing forced birth in Arkansas. (These are the opinions of Dr. Taylor and may not represent his employers.)

You’re an OB-GYN who does not perform abortions. Has your practice been affected by the ban?

I think it’s important that we offer the full scope of health care to all of our patients. And there are many times when we don’t think that a medical procedure will apply to us, and then suddenly it does. So a woman who does not intend to become pregnant, who has very bad heart disease, becomes pregnant. And under the current law, it’s difficult to tell if and when she might have the ability to terminate her pregnancy to save her life. When does it become an emergency? Do we have to wait until she is teetering to intervene? I think fetal anomalies are always a surprise. And some of them are so profound that the general public is not even aware of their existence. People think that babies just pass away quietly in their mothers’ arms and that’s often not how it works. Sometimes babies born with fetal anomalies suffocate. Some of these anomalies are devastating, and the mothers are being forced to carry the babies to term. There’s no intent here to suggest how someone should treat this finding. It’s merely to suggest that different people may want different outcomes for their families. And that choice should remain within the family.

Is there an unforeseen consequence of Arkansas’s trigger ban that you’ve dealt with in your practice?

Yes. Consider a rupture of membranes at 16 weeks. There is a very high risk of premature labor and preterm birth. The baby has a very high risk of having respiratory failure at birth, and there’s a high risk of infection. Most people would say that if we believe there is infection, that the baby should be delivered, regardless of the presence of a heartbeat. And so, if the mother is 21 weeks pregnant, that baby will pass away because it’s pre-viable. But there is concern about how we act on pregnancies where a heartbeat is still detected, even for the benefit of mothers’ health.

What other consequences have you seen that were maybe not anticipated?

Pharmacists don’t want to give medicine for medically managed miscarriages. With a miscarriage, there are three options. There’s expectant management [waiting for the miscarriage to happen naturally]; surgical management, which is a D&C [dilation and curettage]; and medication management with misoprostol. And misoprostol is one of the drugs used in medication abortion. So women get turned away, and it’s another stain on someone who’s doing something that’s perfectly legal. We had an issue with this just yesterday. We’re having to prescribe to certain pharmacies.

What’s the next step here to help women secure reproductive autonomy?

We need to encourage access to any kind of birth control that any woman wants, at any time. Health insurance might need rethinking, and I think we also need to be able to talk about birth control options in the teenage years. I have no issue with promoting abstinence as a form of birth control, but people who do not choose that as their form of birth control need to know there are other options.

BRIAN CHILSON

FAMILY: My dad, who just moved to Little Rock from Texas, and my soon-tobe husband, Myron. FAVORITE VACATION: Any beach, but I love Costa Rica. FAVORITE SHOW: “Game of Thrones”

What do young men need to know about abortion access in Arkansas?

It is critical, as a partner in this process with women, that they are also well-informed on reliable forms of birth control. They are not bystanders. This is not something that men do to women. This is an opportunity for us to stand by women.

You’ve been quite outspoken on this issue, which is a brave thing in a red state. Why do you put yourself out there like that?

There are many, many, many, many pro-choice OB-GYNs in this state, and they are terrified of speaking out for fear of retaliation. And most people in this state are pro-choice to some degree. I think that it’s important for the women of Arkansas to see that they have doctors who support them, and that they can point to them and meet them and know that they are real people and that they really exist. I would really like to go a step further and suggest that more pro-choice OBGYNs become more involved in this process. Nobody is ever out here promoting abortion or even suggesting that it is the better path. It’s just about making sure that a woman has autonomy. — Austin Bailey

THINKING BIG

VISIONS FOR A PARK THAT COULD DEFINE LITTLE ROCK.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

The Arkansas Department of Transportation’s 30 Crossing project, the interminable, colossally expensive overhaul of the Interstate 30 bridge, is almost entirely bad news. Its 500 lanes of traffic (only a slight exaggeration) will create an ugly concrete sea in the middle of downtown Little Rock, and likely have little effect on rush hour traffic congestion.

If there’s any good news to be found in the project, it’s that Little Rock will get a new, prominent 20-acre park downtown. 30 Crossing has gotten rid of the on- and offramps in the River Market District, which frees up a spatula-shaped parcel of land that stretches under the interstate for park use. While the Department of Transportation will continue to own the land, it’s Little Rock’s to build out as a park. What that might look like is of course dependent on money, and despite new allocations for Little Rock parks from federal coronavirus relief funds and forthcoming money generated from the proceeds of the capital millage voters recently renewed, there’s not likely to be enough to do anything spectacular anytime soon.

That’s no reason we shouldn’t still consider visionary options, something the design nonprofit studioMAIN has encouraged Little Rock to do since it was founded a decade ago. Earlier this year, studioMAIN hosted the Envision Competition 2022, seeking plans for the parkland from professionals, students and members of the public. Juried and public choice awards were given. See all the submissions at studio-main.org.

ARKANSAS RIVER WALK AMR Architects won the Wildcard Public Choice Award for its bold plan to bring the Arkansas River into downtown via a series of canals lined by green space and mixed-use development.

ÜNDRPASS Kudos to Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, winner of the Public Choice Little Rock Placemaking Award, for coming up with a very cool looking quilt-like installation that undulates under and around the interstate and othewise incorporating loads of green space in its design. But Little Rock has a “no umlauts” rule in park names.

LITTLE ROCK PARKWAY Cromwell Architects Engineers won the Public Choice Award for Establish Connections for its plan, which preserves the spiral framework of the old on- and off-ramps. The design has all the things a park should: a pavilion, an amphitheater, a splash pad, a playground, sports fields and courts, a big pond, a food truck area and lots of green space.

TOWN BRANCH PARK Taggart Architects won the Jury Award in the Professional category for its modern vision that calls back the past. Town Branch was what the area was once known as, and Taggart envisions “reviving” a creek between Second and Third streets and constructing a “treehouse city” that’s supposed to recall historic city fabric of yore. There’s also a giant blue dino sculpture, Little Rock-y, that doubles as a climbing wall.