Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Pregnancy Deaths

The fatality rate of pregnancy/childbirth is absolutely immense in the US.
Yet more than 100 years after that landmark report, written by Dr. Grace Meigs, Americans are still dying of pregnancy and childbirth-related causes at rates far above many parts of the world. Even as maternal mortality declined globally by a third from 2000 to 2015, deaths rose in the United States. The racial disparity persists as well. Even when Black women have higher incomes, they are more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth than white women are.
It really isn't an issue that can even be hoped to be addressed in many states after Dobbs (the piece mentions, but downplays it). The state laws make providing appropriate medical care for women impossible, and the exodus of doctors and OB/GYN practices and the shuttering of maternity wards will continue.

The general fuckedupedness of our health care system doesn't help, either.

"Abortion is health care" is one of those concepts that was dismissed by Sensible Centrists for years because they are dumb and never listen. "Leaving it to the states" means death.