As conservatives throughout the nation wage warfare on reproductive rights, demanding by legislation that girls be pressured to hold any being pregnant to time period, whatever the circumstances, they continuously (slash at all times) wish to neglect that they do completely nothing to help these folks throughout mentioned pregnancies or after. Mississippi, for instance, the place abortion will instantly grow to be unlawful if Roe v. Wade is overturned, has the best charge of little one poverty within the nation and lately rejected a bid to increase postpartum Medicaid protection. And in Louisiana, which has an identical set off legislation that can go into impact upon Roe being reversed, maternal mortality charges are among the many worst within the nation. But in keeping with GOP senator Bill Cassidy, the speed at which ladies die throughout being pregnant or shortly after isn’t as dangerous because it appears—in the event you subtract the deaths of Black ladies, which apparently don’t depend.
In an interview with Politico, the next phrases got here out of Cassidy’s mouth: “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
There’s rather a lot to unpack right here. Let’s begin with the concept that Cassidy—who desires to defund Planned Parenthood is all, Yes, on its face, our maternal mortality charges are abysmal, however in the event you solely depend white ladies, they’re not that dangerous! Then there’s the phrase “for whatever reason.” In truth, there may be one very massive purpose particularly— maybe you possibly can take a guess? “It’s no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women,” Michelle Williams, the dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health mentioned in response. “They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias.” As Politico notes, Black moms are thrice extra probably to die from a pregnancy-related trigger than white moms within the U.S., which has the worst mortality charge amongst developed nations and the place “17 mothers die for every 100,000 pregnancies in the country.” In Louisiana, Black moms are 4 instances as probably to die than white moms.
Asked what how Roe v. Wade being overturned would have an effect on maternal mortality charges, Cassidy dismissed the query. “If we’re using abortion to limit maternal deaths, that’s kind of an odd way to approach the problem,” he mentioned. That, in fact, is complete bullshit. As NBC News reported earlier this month, “Research suggests the bans and restrictions would have manifold effects on maternal health. For one, if more pregnant people can’t get the abortions they seek, they’d shoulder the risk of the U.S.’s relatively high—and rising—rate of death from pregnancy-related causes, which is particularly elevated among people of color.” As Dr. Amy Addante, an ob-gyn in Illinois, bluntly put it: “There are going to be women that will die from pregnancy because of this decision, period.”
And in different war-on-women information, through HuffPost:
While Eubanks’s feedback are fully disturbing, she’s removed from the one Republican who’s prompt they wish to see contraceptives banned. In March, Senator Marsha Blackburn referred to as Griswold v. Connecticut—the 1965 ruling that struck down a state ban on contraceptives—“constitutionally unsound,” whereas Idaho plans to carry a listening to to ban emergency contraception and probably IUDs as properly. Others have claimed that anybody nervous a couple of ban on contraception (or homosexual marriage, or interracial marriage) is being hysterical—which, by the way, is what many mentioned concerning the prospect of Roe being overturned.