The rate of Texas women who died from complications related to pregnancy doubled from 2010 to 2014, a new study has found, for an estimated maternal mortality rate that is unmatched in any other state and the rest of the developed world. The finding comes from a report, appearing in the September issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, that the maternal mortality rate in the United States increased between 2000 and 2014, even while the rest of the world succeeded in reducing its rate. Excluding California, where maternal mortality declined, and Texas, where it surged, the estimated number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births rose to 23.8 in 2014 from 18.8 in 2000 – or about 27%. But the report singled out Texas for special concern, saying the doubling of mortality rates in a two-year period was hard to explain “in the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval”. In the wake of the report, reproductive health advocates are blaming the increase on Republican-led budget cuts that decimated the ranks of Texas’s reproductive healthcare clinics. In 2011, just as the spike began, the Texas state legislature cut $73.6m from the state’s family planning budget of $111.5m. The two-thirds cut forced more than 80 family planning clinics to shut down across the state. The remaining clinics managed to provide services – such as low-cost or free birth control, cancer screenings and well-woman exams – to only half as many women as before. At the same time, Texas eliminated all Planned Parenthood clinics – whether or not they provided abortion services – from the state program that provides poor women with preventive healthcare. Previously, Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas offered cancer screenings and contraception to more than 130,000 women. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding
The implication is that reducing contraception and abortion is what has led to the increase. But if that were the reason, we would be seeing an increase in the birthrate too. They do not say whether we are. But this, it being in the Guardian, will be an axe-grinding piece, seeking to make some point about state spending on health, and hinting at what the evil Tories may, in leftie fantasies at least, be planning for the UK. What I would like to see is how obesity among expectant mothers is going in Texas. If you are disgustingly fat, as so many in Texas are, I am quite sure your chances of pregnancy complications are significantly raised.
No. The implication is that reducing health care for pregnant women lead to the increase. Read the fucking article. The fact is that Republicans hate women. Part of this is hating abortions and doing everything they can, unthinkingly, to stop it.
The implication (actually explicitly stated) is pretty clear on the reason: "the increase in Republican-led budget cuts that decimated the ranks of Texas’s reproductive healthcare clinics."
Well here is the thing, while Texas obesity rates are high, many states, i.e. 22 out of 50 states, share similar obesity rates, and some states, i.e. 4 states, have even higher obesity rates. So I don't think you can lay this on obesity. http://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/
