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Aug 20 2016 11:25am
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding

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The rate of Texas women who died from complications related to their 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”.

From 2000 to the end of 2010, Texas’s estimated maternal mortality rate hovered between 17.7 and 18.6 per 100,000 births. But after 2010, that rate had leaped to 33 deaths per 100,000, and in 2014 it was 35.8. Between 2010-2014, more than 600 women died for reasons related to their pregnancies.

No other state saw a comparable increase.

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 preventative healthcare. Previously, Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas offered cancer screenings and contraception to more than 130,000 women.

In 2013, Texas restored funding to the family planning budget to original levels. But the healthcare providers who survived the initial cuts reported struggles to restore services to their original levels.

Indeed, the report said it was “puzzling” that Texas’s maternal mortality rate rose only modestly from 2000 to 2010 before doubling between 2011 and 2012. The researchers, hailing from the University of Maryland, Boston University’s school of public health and Stanford University’s medical school, called for further study. But they noted that starting in 2011, Texas drastically reduced the number of women’s health clinics within its borders.

The report comes just as public health advocates are raising questions about Texas’s ability to prepare for the Zika virus, which is transmitted by a common species of mosquito and has been linked to severe birth defects. The World Health Organization has advised women in areas of local transmission to delay pregnancy.

Texas is one of several southern states where health officials say there is a risk of a local outbreak. But about half the state lacks ready access to OB-GYN care, making it difficult for women to obtain contraception or for pregnant women to confirm the health of their babies. Just this month, Texas’s health department drew fire for allocating $1.6m of the $18m the state budgets for low-income women’s family planning to an anti-abortion group that does not provide basic health services.

“There is a need to redouble efforts to prevent maternal deaths and improve maternity care for the 4 million US women giving birth each year,” the authors said.


So this is what cutting Planned Parenthood and closing down abortion clinics gives you.

Pro-life my ass. Pro-money more like.
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Aug 20 2016 11:47am
Wow the guys deciding to close those abortions clinics arent really black & poor btw. Such an horrible place.

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Aug 20 2016 11:52am
Calling individuals against women's healthcare funding "pro-life" is about as much as a farce as I can imagine. They are forcing their puritan morality and using the state to force women to have children against their will. They can't accept that adult human beings are going to fuck for fun, and are still going hard with the Christian ethic of controlling the sexuality of women.

There is supposed to be a separation between church and state. The pro-life movement is based on the unscientific and unfounded idea that there is a supernatural human soul that is separate from the mind and body and that the existence of this metaphysical non-thing is enough to justify authoritarian regimes in government.

Of course the practical effect of their policies is that children are dying at startling rates no doubt. Like every one of their policies it is based on religious-gut feeling and doesn't even consider the overwhelming empirical evidence that their policies are bad for individuals and families in America. They get these ideas they get fixiated on and no matter what research shows will happen, they will just claim that intellectual people are all involved in a great conspiracy to spread moral decay in the United States and want to move back toward a time when fascism was carrying a cross and was wrapped in the American flag.

We should treat them like they treat us: as evil beings who deserve to be exterminated. I don't really suggest this because I don't think individuals should let others shape their character and I do not share their slave morality. But their slave morality will tell them that their enemies are evil and need to be destroyed so that good will triumph. Good thing they're dying off, and these big church country club Christians are replacing them, which is basically a charitable social club for feel good hedonist gatherings devoid of any real spirituality and salvation. Joel Osteen ministries.
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Aug 20 2016 11:52am
Not surprising at all.
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Aug 20 2016 11:56am
Quote (Skinned @ Aug 20 2016 05:52pm)
Calling individuals against women's healthcare funding "pro-life" is about as much as a farce as I can imagine. They are forcing their puritan morality and using the state to force women to have children against their will. They can't accept that adult human beings are going to fuck for fun, and are still going hard with the Christian ethic of controlling the sexuality of women.

There is supposed to be a separation between church and state. The pro-life movement is based on the unscientific and unfounded idea that there is a supernatural human soul that is separate from the mind and body and that the existence of this metaphysical non-thing is enough to justify authoritarian regimes in government.

Of course the practical effect of their policies is that children are dying at startling rates no doubt. Like every one of their policies it is based on religious-gut feeling and doesn't even consider the overwhelming empirical evidence that their policies are bad for individuals and families in America. They get these ideas they get fixiated on and no matter what research shows will happen, they will just claim that intellectual people are all involved in a great conspiracy to spread moral decay in the United States and want to move back toward a time when fascism was carrying a cross and was wrapped in the American flag.

We should treat them like they treat us: as evil beings who deserve to be exterminated. I don't really suggest this because I don't think individuals should let others shape their character and I do not share their slave morality. But their slave morality will tell them that their enemies are evil and need to be destroyed so that good will triumph. Good thing they're dying off, and these big church country club Christians are replacing them, which is basically a charitable social club for feel good hedonist gatherings devoid of any real spirituality and salvation. Joel Osteen ministries.


Is it possible for the Federal government to do something about this (assuming Senate/Supreme Court are ok with it)?
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Aug 20 2016 12:00pm
In every war there is collateral damage.
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Aug 20 2016 12:03pm
Quote (balrog66 @ Aug 20 2016 12:56pm)
Is it possible for the Federal government to do something about this (assuming Senate/Supreme Court are ok with it)?


Yes they can because it is unconstitutional. But the SCOTUS only hears cases it chooses to...nothing goes to them, they reach out and pick.

There needs to be enough cases for their to be several grievances. Usually the particular grievance that matches the ideological ideas of the chief justice are chosen, if he wants it to lean one way he will pick a stronger vs weaker case etc.

There is a lot of money involved. You need several million dollars at least to get a case to the SCOTUS and preceding courts. Texas would have the first shot of getting it right, but if it is still unconstitutional by the time that is over the SCOTUS may hear it. They send out a Writ of Certiorari when they're ready to hear something. it is all part of Judicial Review, one of our oldest and most important traditions, which has turned out to be a great defender of freedom for all of us.

Libertarians will say judicial review is theft or something though. be warned, they love to defend states that discriminate against some citizens. That is what States Rights is pretty much all about anymore.

This post was edited by Skinned on Aug 20 2016 12:04pm
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Aug 20 2016 12:05pm
Quote (Skinned @ Aug 20 2016 10:03am)
Yes they can because it is unconstitutional. But the SCOTUS only hears cases it chooses to...nothing goes to them, they reach out and pick.

There needs to be enough cases for their to be several grievances. Usually the particular grievance that matches the ideological ideas of the chief justice are chosen, if he wants it to lean one way he will pick a stronger vs weaker case etc.

There is a lot of money involved. You need several million dollars at least to get a case to the SCOTUS and preceding courts. Texas would have the first shot of getting it right, but if it is still unconstitutional by the time that is over the SCOTUS may hear it. They send out a Writ of Certiorari when they're ready to hear something.


How can it be unconstitutional for the state government to defund an organization? I am admittedly weak in this realm of law.
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Aug 20 2016 12:12pm
This is what can happen when politicians interpret their own religous beliefs as it pertains to women health services and ignore public health experts. They warned them that shutting down all these health clinics would lead to big public health problems.

As a Texan, it's embarassing and horrifying for me to read about this kind of shit, but it's not surprising. It took way too long for the federal courts to bust this religous nonsense up. The Republicans of this state need to govern smarter.
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Aug 20 2016 12:17pm
Quote (ThatAlex @ Aug 20 2016 10:12am)
This is what can happen when politicians interpret their own religous beliefs as it pertains to women health services and ignore public health experts. They warned them that shutting down all these health clinics would lead to big public health problems.

As a Texan, it's embarassing and horrifying for me to read about this kind of shit, but it's not surprising. It took way too long for the federal courts to bust this religous nonsense up. The Republicans of this state need to govern smarter.


I think it's perfectly acceptable to defund planned parenthood as long as those funds go to other women's health clinics that don't deal with abortion.

Also, it's not limited to a religious belief. It's philosophical as well. There are plenty of pro-life atheists out there.
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