Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Host of Hardline Radio Show
Texas lawmakers have chosen not to do anything “to address the state’s skyrocketing rate of pregnancy-related deaths just months after researchers found it to be the highest in not only the U.S., but the developed world.”
Researchers from the University of Maryland found that maternal mortality in Texas has surged by 27% from 2000 to 2014. In 2000 maternal deaths reached between 17.7 and 18.6 percent, but just 10 years later these deaths “leaped to 33 deaths per 100,000, and in 2014 it was 35.8 percent.”
And from 2010 to 2014 an average of 600 women died because of complications “related to their pregnancies.” This trend happens to coincide with lawmakers cutting funds to family planning services by an excess of 66% over the last 5 years.
The actions of the Texas legislature between 2012 and 2015 cut the number of abortion clinics from 41 to 17 with the average travel time being 111 miles for patrons.
In addition to other family planning services cut, there were 82 clinic in total that were defunded out of existence. The result was a shutting of an “entry point into the healthcare system” for women in low-income brackets who could not afford the care they need otherwise.
Four years ago, Texas lawmakers introduced a bill that mandated doctors must have special “admitting privileges at nearby hospitals [and] only allow abortions in surgical centers, dictate when abortion pills are taken and ban abortions after 20 weeks.”
Authored by State Senator Glenn Hegar, who said his bill was meant to protect women’s rights, did not include acceptations for abortion rights for rape and incest victims; as well as women who have pre-existing psychological conditions.
In response the Texas House of Representatives passed HB 2 the most intrusive abortion restrictions to date.
But this spike in maternal deaths is becoming a nationwide trend as well.
Eugene Declercq, professor of community health sceicnes for Boston University said the US is an “embarrassment” because of the high number of pregnancy-related deaths.
Declercq added: “Our rates are comparable to Iran, the Ukraine, and Russia, not countries we generally want to compare out health outcomes to.”
As far as the US is concerned, the national maternal mortality rate spiked by 26.6% between 2000 and 2014.
Rachel Ward, managing director of research for Amnesty International explained that from 1993 to 2013, the increase of maternal mortality in the US “is a combination of factors that speak to the systematic problems of failing to provide affordable, accessible, quality health services to all women in the US.”
Source Article from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OccupyCorporatism/~3/tJMq0YRDCkU/
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