The hypocrisy of conservatives is revolting. Let's do away with women's clinics and free/affordable birth control then we can just stick our heads in the sand while celebrating what we aimed to do and damn to the rest of you.
79
As a group home teen growing up in California I was only given church based abstinence only education. All I knew is that I bled once a month. At 17 I became pregnant and my boyfriend took me for abortion in San Marcos. It was then I learned about Planned Parenthood. Since then I've been on the pill, patch and now IUD. I've learned more about my body through PP and they have allowed me to pursue my AA, BS, RN and soon MSN. Boys and girls are going to have sex. Let's start with educating them early one of choices to allow them to succeed.
133
Americans do not feel that society has a responsibility to help women and girls get access to contraceptives, or provide prenatal care, or even save the lives of women. If this piece had shown the number of White women who die in childbirth, it might have garnered more interest. But, instead, it mentions Medicaid births, so empathy disappears. Americans don't care if poor women die. Americans believe poor women are undeserving, poor women are takers, poor women should keep their legs closed. And, if poor women dare to have sex and become pregnant, that is the punishment they deserve. Just try reading some articles on right-leaning websites and right-leaning media. You'll learn what a majority of Americans think about poor women.
181
Do you think Trumps absolute disrespect for women is increasing an already existing deep
Disrespect for women?
I do.
Disrespect for women?
I do.
75
The government never forced anyone to have unprotected sex. In fact affordable contraception was much, much more difficult to obtained in 1960, when out of wedlock pregnancy was less than 10%, than it is now. Obviously the availabity of contraception is not an issue.
It is not the governments fault that people don't check their blood pressure. This can be done for free at most pharmacies.
It is not the governments fault people don't want to go see a doctor. Where are the fathers to help pay for a dr. visit or health insurance.
It is really stupid to say Americans don't like mothers. Maybe it makes an attractive headline but it is inane.
It is not stupid to understand that this is a societal problem, not a government problem. Until societal ethos change regarding personal responsibility, ethics and morality the government can do nothing to alleviate problems surrounding unwanted pregnancies.
It is not the governments fault that people don't check their blood pressure. This can be done for free at most pharmacies.
It is not the governments fault people don't want to go see a doctor. Where are the fathers to help pay for a dr. visit or health insurance.
It is really stupid to say Americans don't like mothers. Maybe it makes an attractive headline but it is inane.
It is not stupid to understand that this is a societal problem, not a government problem. Until societal ethos change regarding personal responsibility, ethics and morality the government can do nothing to alleviate problems surrounding unwanted pregnancies.
17
As someone living in the U.K., the US's fear of "socialised" medicine is just ... odd. There's this myth that medical care will be denied on cost grounds, but I've never experienced that, particularly when it comes to pregnancy and beyond.
On the NHS I have received - IVF, prenatal care including monthly check ups, 4 scans, free prescriptions and dental care, an emergency c section (when my labour got complicated, an obstetrician was called for straight away, and didn't hesitate to recommend a c section, and this is in a hospital where vaginal birth etc is aimed for), 2 nights hospital stay, medication after I returned home, frequent midwife and the health visitor visits to check on me and the baby, regular health checks for the baby, vaccinations, a referral to a breast feeding specialist who came to my home when I had issues, constant GP visits for my child (the GP said, when in doubt, bring them in), a referral to a paediatric dermatologist and optometrist when there were concerns over a birth mark ... all covered by the NHS.
Study after study has shown that access to healthcare during pregnancy and after improves outcomes for the child and mother. This also isn't getting started and the lack of parental leave in the US which is shown to be detrimental to the health of the child (and mother)
On the NHS I have received - IVF, prenatal care including monthly check ups, 4 scans, free prescriptions and dental care, an emergency c section (when my labour got complicated, an obstetrician was called for straight away, and didn't hesitate to recommend a c section, and this is in a hospital where vaginal birth etc is aimed for), 2 nights hospital stay, medication after I returned home, frequent midwife and the health visitor visits to check on me and the baby, regular health checks for the baby, vaccinations, a referral to a breast feeding specialist who came to my home when I had issues, constant GP visits for my child (the GP said, when in doubt, bring them in), a referral to a paediatric dermatologist and optometrist when there were concerns over a birth mark ... all covered by the NHS.
Study after study has shown that access to healthcare during pregnancy and after improves outcomes for the child and mother. This also isn't getting started and the lack of parental leave in the US which is shown to be detrimental to the health of the child (and mother)
102
Too many people on the planet. Childbirth should become a rare occurrence
25
We love the IDEA of motherhood. The messy details? Not so much.
Especially if it involves helping "them."
I know what some of my family members would say (maybe out loud, maybe not) looking at the picture with this article: 'There she is, ready to pop another one out of her big tattooed belly, and wanting all the help she can get...'
Like many, many other Americans, their thinking is pretty much automatic: There's a black woman, so she's probably another one of those 'welfare queens' that Saint Ronald warned us about. She's probably got a Cadillac parked outside the clinic... Right.
Racism is the major reason we don't have universal health care in this country, plain and simple. As someone else commented, many whites would rather see their own benefits cut than see too many blacks or Mexicans get ahead.
The Europeans and others with universal health care have much more homogenous populations, so it was a more acceptable idea to people. Notice how divided the French, Germans, etc are now about extending their universal care to their darker skinned "new arrivals."
I have no idea how this underlying problem is ever going to solved in the US. In principle, we 'just' need to convince enough racist white folks and their politicians it's really in THEIR OWN best interests that the poor people on the other side of town have health care access. But in reality? Good luck with that!
Especially if it involves helping "them."
I know what some of my family members would say (maybe out loud, maybe not) looking at the picture with this article: 'There she is, ready to pop another one out of her big tattooed belly, and wanting all the help she can get...'
Like many, many other Americans, their thinking is pretty much automatic: There's a black woman, so she's probably another one of those 'welfare queens' that Saint Ronald warned us about. She's probably got a Cadillac parked outside the clinic... Right.
Racism is the major reason we don't have universal health care in this country, plain and simple. As someone else commented, many whites would rather see their own benefits cut than see too many blacks or Mexicans get ahead.
The Europeans and others with universal health care have much more homogenous populations, so it was a more acceptable idea to people. Notice how divided the French, Germans, etc are now about extending their universal care to their darker skinned "new arrivals."
I have no idea how this underlying problem is ever going to solved in the US. In principle, we 'just' need to convince enough racist white folks and their politicians it's really in THEIR OWN best interests that the poor people on the other side of town have health care access. But in reality? Good luck with that!
158
The notion that republicans are "pro-life" is a myth. They are pro-birth and only because they are pandering to their rabidly religious base for whom abortion is the sole issue. Republicans have long been against anything that actually supports life once it is born including food assistance, education and health care. They are also against anything that helps to prevent pregnancy in the first place. Until that changes, the plight of mothers, and indeed of children, in this country will only continue to get worse. In this day and age that's criminal, and a national embarrassment.
68
Thank you for helping educate the country by presenting this information. There is never a time, a place, a format where eliminating ignorance is not appropriate.
23
In the end, we can help each other or hurt each other. The GOP has decided to hurt 95% of Americans, mostly by direct and intended actions that result in a poorer America and a weaker America.
Repeal and Replace the GOP.
Repeal and Replace the GOP.
46
We cannot legislate abortion away. We cannot legislate against birth control. Our God is a loving God, the God of all creation, and within the ongoing creation story we each face the tension of choice, but it must be one's own choice. Therein lies redemption.
13
I totally agree that the issues raised in this piece need to be addressed and I support Planned Parenthood, reproductive rights and contraception. I do wonder about the mortality statistics for American mothers. How much of the difference between us and other countries is also due to American mothers being more likely to have pre-existing health conditions - namely conditions associated with obesity - that may make a pregnancy more complicated.
9
How much of our increasing maternal mortality is due to lack of respect for the human rights of girls and women to control our own bodies?
35
Our politicians romanticize motherhood. So does our entire culture. That blinds most of us to the reality that becoming a mother involves a lot hard physical work. It also blinds us to the fact that women, for all their ability to bear children, need to be able to receive medical care during pregnancy, not because pregnancy is an unnatural state but because there are very real risks involved in child bearing.
Americans have not viewed access to health care as a right. We still view access to health care as a privilege as in why should I, a woman who has had no children or a man who can't bear children, have to pay taxes to help a pregnant woman or a mother, or a woman with any of her female problems. We don't support universal day care or any of a number of other things that even less developed countries do for all their citizens.
The saddest part is knowing either through personal experience or from reading, how many families suffer because of our shortsighted policies on health care, a social safety net, and family leave. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here. All we need to do is look at other countries, our own experiments in working with pregnant woman, contraception, and life in general to know that it's good public policy and health policy to take care of all women whether they request abortions, need medical care during, before, or after a pregnancy, especially if we want to give our children the best possible start in life.
Americans have not viewed access to health care as a right. We still view access to health care as a privilege as in why should I, a woman who has had no children or a man who can't bear children, have to pay taxes to help a pregnant woman or a mother, or a woman with any of her female problems. We don't support universal day care or any of a number of other things that even less developed countries do for all their citizens.
The saddest part is knowing either through personal experience or from reading, how many families suffer because of our shortsighted policies on health care, a social safety net, and family leave. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here. All we need to do is look at other countries, our own experiments in working with pregnant woman, contraception, and life in general to know that it's good public policy and health policy to take care of all women whether they request abortions, need medical care during, before, or after a pregnancy, especially if we want to give our children the best possible start in life.
41
We would clearly be better off as a society if contraception were readily available to all. But there is something wrong with the notion that if we want to enable women to avoid unwanted pregnancies contraception needs to be free. Why don't individuals have some responsibility to use some of their resources to pay for something that benefits them as well as the country as a whole? It's just a part of an increasing culture of dependence.
In the case of contraception, the benefit/cost ratio is so high that I would let the objective of encouraging personal responsibility yield to the need to avoid unwanted pregnancies and make contraception freely available at little or no cost. But that's a trade I would make only in the very limited number of cases (e.g., contraception, vaccination) where the benefit to society as a whole, as distinguished from the individual, is clear.
In the case of contraception, the benefit/cost ratio is so high that I would let the objective of encouraging personal responsibility yield to the need to avoid unwanted pregnancies and make contraception freely available at little or no cost. But that's a trade I would make only in the very limited number of cases (e.g., contraception, vaccination) where the benefit to society as a whole, as distinguished from the individual, is clear.
7
"Why don't individuals have some responsibility to use some of their resources to pay for something that benefits them as well as the country as a whole?"
Because the people most prone to reproducing accidentally are the people with the least responsibility: not future-orientated and poor impulse control.
And those are exactly the kind of people you least want to become parents: people who will spend all their cash on a vacation at the beginning of the month amd then make their kids eat ketchup sandwiches on days 10-30.
This opinion is coming from having worked at a public housing community center for 2 years, and at a mental health advocacy org. My example was a common situation during the summer.
Because the people most prone to reproducing accidentally are the people with the least responsibility: not future-orientated and poor impulse control.
And those are exactly the kind of people you least want to become parents: people who will spend all their cash on a vacation at the beginning of the month amd then make their kids eat ketchup sandwiches on days 10-30.
This opinion is coming from having worked at a public housing community center for 2 years, and at a mental health advocacy org. My example was a common situation during the summer.
25
Tell me, Joel, do Viagra users have to pay $40 per month for their pills? Of course not! Viagra is covered by insurance. So how does use of Viagra benefit the country as a whole, not just the individual?
60
You can never have a pro life policy this way. Or by not giving services for children born into poverty. The pro-life movement seems to romanticize the fetus but have no sympathy or compassion for the child born poor, or for the needs of parents in that situation.
These are cold policies that tend to scare young women and girls and keep them alienated from the health care they need.
Thanks for this work.
These are cold policies that tend to scare young women and girls and keep them alienated from the health care they need.
Thanks for this work.
44
Our country is in the grip of a tidal wave of attacks against women's health by both conservative evangelical "christians" and hard-right ideological GOP politicians They are at war against women's health - especially when it comes to sexuality and anything even remotely related to it. It's no wonder that California has such good statistics and Texas has among the worst in the advanced world.These people are leading us back into the Dark Ages. California is one of the 32 states (plus Washington D.C.) that have accepted the ACA's expanded medicaid & Texas is among the 19 that has not. Texas is at war with Planned Parenthood, though 96% of its services do not involve abortion, but are critical to women's health. Medicaid funds play a major part in just about 50% of childbirths in this country. So, most Texas women receive third-world treatment. How much of this is due to misogynistic hatred or fear of women, 2,000-year-old sexual taboos written in some book, or people who are so ideologically rigid that they will do anything to save a fetus, but nothing for the woman carrying it (or for the child after birth).
Medicaid money is withheld from EVERY taxpayer's checks, whether their state has accepted expanded Medicaid or not. So Texans are paying for other states' expanded medicaid but not getting their tax dollars returned to them. So hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, clinics, and all other businesses that are enriched by this money coming back into the system all suffer.
Medicaid money is withheld from EVERY taxpayer's checks, whether their state has accepted expanded Medicaid or not. So Texans are paying for other states' expanded medicaid but not getting their tax dollars returned to them. So hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, clinics, and all other businesses that are enriched by this money coming back into the system all suffer.
35
So many politcized comments. As a practicing physician who has been doing Obstetrical Anesthesia for 3 decades I encounter some of the issues daily. We cannot compare our stats to those of Japan and Sweden. Lack of universal health care is of paramount importance. It is a reality that our country has an entire third world nation living in its cities; Americans ( and others) without insurance who don't care to obtain it, go to doctors, take medication, or even understand a healthy lifestyle. They show up for delivery with raging hypertension, heart failure, anemia, and extreme obesity. We have foreigners who are here without care just to deliver their babies in the U.S. And we have a legal system that does not allow doctors or hospitals to "police their own", despite what the politicians and attorneys tell the public. The topic is vitally important,lengthy and too broad for this discussion board.
21
The third world nation extends to much of rural America, as well.
27
Many who have enough money for insurance are excluded, due to pre-existing conditions like asthma, childbirth, and previously seeing a doctor for any reason.
10
Yep. Just drive up Hwy 99 in California.
9
Great article Mr. Kristof to shine a light on why we need women to have health care. We have lost our empathy and humanity as a Nation!
29
What we have is WEALTH CARE and in HEALTHCARE we dont have health or care
10
This is yet another example of governing by ideology rather than rationality. Any rational person would look at these numbers, and put a plan in place to correct this trend. However, based on religious ideology, one would punish a weak, sinful woman for her pregnancy. Pregnancy is obviously her fault, she asked for it.
32
The people behind these policies don't love mothers - they love their religion.
33
Americans don't love just any mom, they love rich moms. Americans also love just rich kids. Unregulated capitalism alway works just for the rich.
30
How about a Red State/Blue State comparison chart?
Let's see just how well those "pro-life" Republican policies are working out for American Moms...
Let's see just how well those "pro-life" Republican policies are working out for American Moms...
26
Why do US data end in 2007? Were we too ashamed to keep count, and rather than fix the problem we stopped looking at it?
12
From the article about California hyperlinked by Kristol: "Childbirth is one of the most common reasons women go into hospitals, and yet the American health care system handles complicated pregnancies with a stunning lack of preparation and precision."
The problem is medical malpractice and soluble. No red herrings please.
The problem is medical malpractice and soluble. No red herrings please.
1
If indeed the problem were malpractice, then these numbers would apply across the board for all medical conditions. They do not. This is a red versus blue herring, thank you.
21
What percentage of maternal mortalities result in malpractice claim? Almost all.
A WHO report on maternal mortality indicates the essentially all maternal mortality in developed countries is due to medical malpractice.
California doctors faced the facts: hodgepodge of hospital protocols, lacked of preparedness for maternal emergencies, lack of proper training in delivering, over use of C sections and understanding effects of prior C sections.
The rest of the country's doctors need to face the facts, too.
A WHO report on maternal mortality indicates the essentially all maternal mortality in developed countries is due to medical malpractice.
California doctors faced the facts: hodgepodge of hospital protocols, lacked of preparedness for maternal emergencies, lack of proper training in delivering, over use of C sections and understanding effects of prior C sections.
The rest of the country's doctors need to face the facts, too.
8
So let me get this straight. Republicans don't want to pay for birth control to prevent pregnancy. They don't want to pay for the termination of unplanned pregnancies. They don't want to pay for the prenatal care and delivery of babies. They don't want to pay for the ongoing health care of women who are caring for the children they seem to want us to have so badly (i.e. the pro-life movement). Oh, and they don't want to pay for the medical care of the children once they are born. Did I leave something out?
My guess is that pregnancy and childbirth only affected caucasian women in this country rather than brown and black skinned ones, they'd be tripping over themselves to get us everything we need.
My guess is that pregnancy and childbirth only affected caucasian women in this country rather than brown and black skinned ones, they'd be tripping over themselves to get us everything we need.
34
Everybody needs to read this: http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/527806002/focus-on-infants-during-childbir.... There are many other factors that contribute to maternal death, both social and medical, but the failure to monitor the mother's health post-partum is an egregious error that must be addressed by both gynecologists and midwives alike.
13
The health care system in the U.S. is a very profitable business. For Congress, and especially the Republican Party, it's all about allowing the medical-industrial complex to thrive unbridled.
We have heard health care is "one-sixth of the economy." That is three times more than any other nation spends, and with worse outcomes.
In other countries, families pass their wealth down through the generations. In America, we pay the doctor our last dime.
We have heard health care is "one-sixth of the economy." That is three times more than any other nation spends, and with worse outcomes.
In other countries, families pass their wealth down through the generations. In America, we pay the doctor our last dime.
13
The city of Rochester, NY has one of the highest rates of poverty in the country which is directly related to teen pregnancy. There has been a successful teen sex education/pregnancy prevention program, however, they were just informed that their federal grant will be cut by several years. The best way to prevent maternal death is to prevent these high risk pregnancies in the first place. I just do not understand the philosophy that fuels these cutbacks.
28
We should be ashamed but the power structure isn't. The solution? Universal health care-for better out-comes and to save $.
18
I am proud to say that Oregon just passed the Reproductive Equity Act which will provide reproductive care (contraception, maternity and post partum) for all citizens (men and women) of our state.
I am a scientist, and look forward to seeing what effect this will have on health statistics in Oregon.
I am a scientist, and look forward to seeing what effect this will have on health statistics in Oregon.
37
We love our own moms but not the moms of people we don't know. Texas never expanded its Medicaid program under Obamacare.
17
We don't respect mothers because we don't respect women -- the way Congressmen and our President talk about women, as objects to be physically handled as opposed to treating women as human beings of equal value and merit is why our health policies fail mothers.
Isolating a woman's value to the duration of a gestation period is to devalue their lives before childbearing age, before pregnancy, and after delivery. This is expressed in the political arguments about funding pregnancy prevention but not covering the cost of erectile dysfunction medications.
To value mothers and motherhood is to value women. To value women is to value them in their entirety. Fix that and avoiding these deaths will become easier.
Isolating a woman's value to the duration of a gestation period is to devalue their lives before childbearing age, before pregnancy, and after delivery. This is expressed in the political arguments about funding pregnancy prevention but not covering the cost of erectile dysfunction medications.
To value mothers and motherhood is to value women. To value women is to value them in their entirety. Fix that and avoiding these deaths will become easier.
33
Mr. Kristof did not look very far while he was here in Texas. Texas has about 713 free (needs based) clinics where any pregnant woman can go for basic prenatal care such as tests for high blood pressure and blood tests for diabetes, etc. The information is easy to find; free-clinics(dot)com/state/free-clinics-texas. This site has 713 listings.
An example is Communiity Health Center of Lubbock...Lubbock County may be the most mean-old-Republican county in the USA. This free clininc shows an OB-GYN attending, Dr. (Ms.) K.V., MD. It services list includes child and adult medicine and dentistry.
Of course, these clinics cannot help women who do not bother to go to the climic for pre-natal care.
An example is Communiity Health Center of Lubbock...Lubbock County may be the most mean-old-Republican county in the USA. This free clininc shows an OB-GYN attending, Dr. (Ms.) K.V., MD. It services list includes child and adult medicine and dentistry.
Of course, these clinics cannot help women who do not bother to go to the climic for pre-natal care.
18
Exactly. It's not about access. It's not about cost.
Jay:
I looked at your info for the clinic in Lubbock. Yes, there is a health center - it serves THREE counties it says. It has family docs, pediatricians and nurses.
And it has ONE doc for "Women's Care" - for 3 counties.
Is this what you call adequate care in America for American women?
I am a 5th generation Texan and this makes me hopping mad- you should be mad too.
I looked at your info for the clinic in Lubbock. Yes, there is a health center - it serves THREE counties it says. It has family docs, pediatricians and nurses.
And it has ONE doc for "Women's Care" - for 3 counties.
Is this what you call adequate care in America for American women?
I am a 5th generation Texan and this makes me hopping mad- you should be mad too.
22
Alrighty, as I am from Atown also. HOW many offer abortion services? How many offer counseling to assist in obtaining an abortion in Austin? Planned Parenthood! For those who choose to have these 'life' based organizations want to help every which way except AFTER you have your baby, after that.. so long. A woman should have a CHOICE. How many of these 'free clinics' offer the morning after pilll(s). Texas a huge whole when it comes to women. The state is run by white Christian men, there is no room there for the poor, the downtrodden or the people of color.. Texas is intolerant.
7
Part of the problem is that women receive the message that sex is wrong and that they are expected to guard their virginity. If it's wrong to have sex, then it's also wrong to plan for it by taking measures to avoid pregnancy. When asked why they don't use condoms, young women often say, "well it was just something that happened, it wasn't planned". The "abstinence only" sex education foisted upon our young people reinforces these dangerous ideas.
Nations with lower maternal mortality rates have better health care than we do, and that health care includes sex education that is fact based, not based on "morality. In Texas, there is a trifecta of poor health care, "Christian" sex education and lack of access to women centered care. It's not surprising that people die.
Nations with lower maternal mortality rates have better health care than we do, and that health care includes sex education that is fact based, not based on "morality. In Texas, there is a trifecta of poor health care, "Christian" sex education and lack of access to women centered care. It's not surprising that people die.
154
The reality is that too many people in this country who say they are pro-life are only pro-birth. We see this in the lack of medical care for women and children and in a Congress full of people willing to vote to scale back Medicaid for the working poor.
26
Welcome to the United States, land of the free and home of the brave. Oh, and also home to the newly minted .1%, who have rained down on their fellow citizens a 24/7 drumbeat of propaganda.
The propaganda defines the boundaries of any national conversation, and these are the results. A marketplace free for all in which they make increasing amounts of money and the rest take the hind most.
What has that got to do with healthcare? Turns out just about everything. The .1% don't want to pay for single payer and reduce their ongoing cash flow, and can by virtue of their limitless resources, prevent it through their lobbyists and campaign "donations." (A quaint word if there ever was one to describe "bribes.")
Simply put, in Canada people care about health care and it is embedded in the social contract that is a bed rock of the country. Why? It's just common sense. Nothing more, nothing less.
So Americans die. They go bankrupt if they don't have "insurance" and have to go to a hospital. And life goes on.
Especially for the .1%, whose New Year's Eve bash at your expense is never ending.
It will take a reawakening of the country's democracy to change the current social contract.
Thankfully, that appears to be President Unintended Consequences' principal job while he's in office.
Who knew?
The propaganda defines the boundaries of any national conversation, and these are the results. A marketplace free for all in which they make increasing amounts of money and the rest take the hind most.
What has that got to do with healthcare? Turns out just about everything. The .1% don't want to pay for single payer and reduce their ongoing cash flow, and can by virtue of their limitless resources, prevent it through their lobbyists and campaign "donations." (A quaint word if there ever was one to describe "bribes.")
Simply put, in Canada people care about health care and it is embedded in the social contract that is a bed rock of the country. Why? It's just common sense. Nothing more, nothing less.
So Americans die. They go bankrupt if they don't have "insurance" and have to go to a hospital. And life goes on.
Especially for the .1%, whose New Year's Eve bash at your expense is never ending.
It will take a reawakening of the country's democracy to change the current social contract.
Thankfully, that appears to be President Unintended Consequences' principal job while he's in office.
Who knew?
20
Is this Pro-Life? The final question of this article. The final answer is NO. This is insane.
16
What portion of maternal deaths result in a claim of medical malpractice? I think the figure is incredibly high. I recall a WHO report of maternal mortality (around 2000) which basically stated that essentially all maternal mortality in developed countries was due to medical malpractice.
The hypothesis suggesting that lack of contraception and or the presence of "unplanned" or unwanted pregnancy causes higher maternal mortality is on its face ridiculous if you seriously examine data.
The hypothesis suggesting that lack of contraception and or the presence of "unplanned" or unwanted pregnancy causes higher maternal mortality is on its face ridiculous if you seriously examine data.
3
It is pretty logical: If Americans love moms, why do we let them die?
Because we let moms die, ergo we do not actually love moms; we just say we do.
By the same reasoning, we don't love children either--far too many depressing indicators to demonstrate that generalization.
And respect your elders? Forget that one. I taught students in the health professions and medicine for decades. One course was gerontology and aging, and we had an all too brief segment on aging for the medical students. On several occasions, a student from some country in the Middle East, Africa, or Latin America would comment to the class with passion that he/she was most surprised and shocked by how older people are treated in America. Several of these students referred to the conditions and treatment of older people in our nursing homes. Two commented that if we treated older people this way in my country, we would deserve to be stoned or would at least be shunned by the community.
Years ago an anthropologist noted that those countries that are the most "lethal" (his word) to older people are those that are self-seeking.
Could this country get any more self-seeking than Trump, the GOP, the too-big-to-jail corporations, and all the industries pushing and feeding hedonism and irresponsibility. Add the self-seeking and self-aggrandizing big business mega-churches in as well (see: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/07/24/trump-and-christian-fascists)
How did we lose our humanity as a nation?
Because we let moms die, ergo we do not actually love moms; we just say we do.
By the same reasoning, we don't love children either--far too many depressing indicators to demonstrate that generalization.
And respect your elders? Forget that one. I taught students in the health professions and medicine for decades. One course was gerontology and aging, and we had an all too brief segment on aging for the medical students. On several occasions, a student from some country in the Middle East, Africa, or Latin America would comment to the class with passion that he/she was most surprised and shocked by how older people are treated in America. Several of these students referred to the conditions and treatment of older people in our nursing homes. Two commented that if we treated older people this way in my country, we would deserve to be stoned or would at least be shunned by the community.
Years ago an anthropologist noted that those countries that are the most "lethal" (his word) to older people are those that are self-seeking.
Could this country get any more self-seeking than Trump, the GOP, the too-big-to-jail corporations, and all the industries pushing and feeding hedonism and irresponsibility. Add the self-seeking and self-aggrandizing big business mega-churches in as well (see: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/07/24/trump-and-christian-fascists)
How did we lose our humanity as a nation?
29
New Mexico has sex education. Shades of Nancy Reagan, teenagers are told to "just say no." Abstinence. It just ain't working. The teen pregnancy rate in New Mexico is 72 per 1,000 women aged 15–19 in 2011, then the highest rate in the country. The national rate was 52 per 1,000. It is also related to the poverty level. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young women ages 15 through 19. Religious and male terrorism on women's right to choose remains alive and well in the NM school system. The education tax money would be better spent on handing out prophylactics and explaining their use to teens. Teen pregnancy costs the US more than $9 Billion a year. The anti-abortion crowd is more like a death squad against women.
24
You can be as outraged as you like. You can write about this over and over again. But the only answer is Universal Healthcare. Until we have it, nothing will change.
37
You ask 'If Americans love moms, why do we let them die?' Well, if you listen to some old, triple jowled, pasty white guy in Congress I'm positive he'll work the word 'freedom' into his answer.
40
I bet if we called mothers "fetuses" they would get all the care they need.
24
Could it be that conservative 'Christians' see pregnancy and childbirth as a punishment for Eve's sinful nature? Make sure that sexually active females 'pay' for having sex.
24
Yes, let's be a bit more (strikingly) specific. In 2015 maternal mortality was 33.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in Texas and 7.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in California - both "wealthy" states. Many factors are involved, but this disparity represents one striking phenomenon across the United States: The more laws a given state has restricting access the abortion, the worse are most measurements of all aspects of maternal and child health. The "Right to Life" movement is demonstrably inhumane.
45
Lesson: Babies are cute. Women DO NOT MATTER.
17
Republicans are fanatics who will not retreat one inch, they will let mothers die where they stand, rather than end their warped ideological assault on women's rights and health care.
23
We need to stop calling anti-abortion republicans "pro-lifers" when they are really only "pro-fetus", they clearly do not care about any life outside the womb.
28
Lets start with contraception.$40 for a month of birth control pills!!!For that price one could buy 10 yrs of the same pill in India!!!By the way NO oral contraceptives are made in USA.All the IUDS are made in foreign countries and sold at usurious prices here!!Providing contraception at a reasonable cost will be a great start to stave the myriad problems down the road.
30
The dialogue about unwanted pregnancies have gone on for decades, yet there has been scant movement in the birth control due mainly to the intransigent views of fundamentalist religious leaders. Their views on birth control, abortion, teaching "abstinence" are outdated, blindly didactic, and counter-productive.
19
Mr. Kristof ties this problem to closed clinics, limited access to Medicaid. and our abortion laws. Those are all major concerns, but they have next to nothing to do with maternal deaths. NPR did more detailed reporting on the subject. First of all, it reported that the total number of maternal deaths each year in the U.S. is 700 to 900. (Mr. Kristof's "twice a day" is accurate but so more dramatic.) That's more than the number struck by lightning, but not a whole lot more. NPR also indicated that there isn't much of a pattern among those who die, wealthy poor or otherwise.
These are some of the real causes according to NPR:
1. New mothers are older than they used to be, with more complex medical histories.
2. Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, whether the mother was using birth control or not and whether she had easy access to care or not..
3. There is a greater prevalence of C-sections in the U.S.
Addressing these matters requires more attention to age and pregnancy, more effective use of birth control, and analysis of our use of C-sections. It's about family planning and obstetrics, not rich and poor. Another consideration is that, in most of our big cities, more men die during pregnancy than women. Now there's an interesting statistic.
These are some of the real causes according to NPR:
1. New mothers are older than they used to be, with more complex medical histories.
2. Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, whether the mother was using birth control or not and whether she had easy access to care or not..
3. There is a greater prevalence of C-sections in the U.S.
Addressing these matters requires more attention to age and pregnancy, more effective use of birth control, and analysis of our use of C-sections. It's about family planning and obstetrics, not rich and poor. Another consideration is that, in most of our big cities, more men die during pregnancy than women. Now there's an interesting statistic.
9
Wow. You managed to both cherrypick and mansplain at the same time! So talented.
12
Michjas:
A great comment. It left me better informed and chuckling.
A great comment. It left me better informed and chuckling.
2
NPR also said that USA ranked dead last for maternal mortality for developed nations. How did you miss that?
11
One aspect of this comparison is worth a deeper look. Y
Yes, countries like Norway and Sweden have far better mortality rates than be US but they also have a far more homogeneous population. If you exclude 2 groups (Hispanic immigrants and single African American mothers) - the mortality rates in the US are on par with the best in the world.
The bottom line is this - education matters and it matters a lot. Issues of unwanted pregnancy and lack of prenatal care are so strongly correlated with income and education it's ridiculous to try to fix them without addressing that fact.
Yes, countries like Norway and Sweden have far better mortality rates than be US but they also have a far more homogeneous population. If you exclude 2 groups (Hispanic immigrants and single African American mothers) - the mortality rates in the US are on par with the best in the world.
The bottom line is this - education matters and it matters a lot. Issues of unwanted pregnancy and lack of prenatal care are so strongly correlated with income and education it's ridiculous to try to fix them without addressing that fact.
13
So, you are arguing to exclude two large groups in our population, that combined make up a significant portion of our population, just so you can change the reality of the statistics? That is surely fudging the data to get the results you want, not the results of reality.
7
Oh Lord. Here we go.
Look. Rural America is having a crisis in maternal death rate. When Texas closed the PP maternal deaths spiked to a third world level. Planned Parenthood is where people get educated about healthy pregnancy. Politics matter- the GOP has married ignorance and it is playing out in deadly policy.
Parsing stats from Sweden where moms don't die becasues they are white people is a luxury debate when the facts indicate skyrocketing and totally preventable deaths here in the USA. It is shameful.
Look. Rural America is having a crisis in maternal death rate. When Texas closed the PP maternal deaths spiked to a third world level. Planned Parenthood is where people get educated about healthy pregnancy. Politics matter- the GOP has married ignorance and it is playing out in deadly policy.
Parsing stats from Sweden where moms don't die becasues they are white people is a luxury debate when the facts indicate skyrocketing and totally preventable deaths here in the USA. It is shameful.
5
The data are available, and it's clear that the highest mortality rates are among Hispanics and Blacks.
Philly Girl seems to think that to "exclude two large groups in our population" is done to change the reality of the statics. Philly Girl and others don't realize that the first step in looking at a problem is to IDENTIFY the problem: where are the highest number of deaths. Identify then work on the problem.
Philly Girl seems to think that to "exclude two large groups in our population" is done to change the reality of the statics. Philly Girl and others don't realize that the first step in looking at a problem is to IDENTIFY the problem: where are the highest number of deaths. Identify then work on the problem.
6
Republicans are not pro-life. They are pro-fetus.
14
The answer to your question is simple - the life of a (potential) male is seen as more valuable than that of the mother. So the baby's rights supercede those of the mom.
Hence, poor maternal care, lionizations of motherhood, and abortion as the ultimate evil.
Hence, poor maternal care, lionizations of motherhood, and abortion as the ultimate evil.
6
You are wrong. There have been questions about using mammography for breast cancer screening and a few years back, the US preventive task force considering down grading the test in terms of its use for screening. There was hell to pay, as there should have been. Mammography remains a test that is standard. Meanwhile, the same task force downgraded the use of PSA testing for early prostate cancer screening. Prostate cancer kills 30,000 US men annually and the PSA blood test is a fraction of the cost of a Mammogram. We are now seeing a surge in men presenting with metastatic prostate cancer across this country. In this case, we don't seem to care about men dying.
4
2
Your article states that these deaths are "relatively unusual in Massachusetts"
Texas is leading the pack in maternal deaths.
Texas is leading the pack in maternal deaths.
5
Why is always about access to care? Or are you so arrogant to think that these people should be treated like livestock and the government is just supposed to take care of them. We have a higher pregnancy death and complications rate because these women DO NOT show up for their FREE medical care. I am a physician and the Medicaid population in my practice has a greater than 50% no-show rate. They have a $0 copay. It costs them nothing, but they don't come. And guess what? They have more problems, more complications and usually die at an earlier age. If this population of women were rounded up and moved to an different industrialized country, that country's pregnancy death rate would sky rocket. The government cannot compensate for total lack of personal responsibility no matter how much money we spend.
9
And in your learned opinion these women are specific to the US or why would transferring them to another country cause that country's maternal mortality to skyrocket?
Might there be something specific about how these services are offered that causes the mothers to miss their free appointments? Could it be that getting time off work (legal requirement in most of Europe) to attend is lacking? Could it be that the network of suppliers has been thinned out so drastically that many women cannot actually get to one any more? I get the sneaking suspicion that mothers qualifying for Medicaid might not have significant mobility means either. Arrogance indeed.
There are mandatory prenatal screenings in Germany. I've never heard of anyone equating that to treating people as lifestock. It seems preventing the preventable death is mostly about treating people like people. Are you sure you understood the Hippocratic Oath you took when becoming a physician? Or has that one been deemed un-American as well?
Might there be something specific about how these services are offered that causes the mothers to miss their free appointments? Could it be that getting time off work (legal requirement in most of Europe) to attend is lacking? Could it be that the network of suppliers has been thinned out so drastically that many women cannot actually get to one any more? I get the sneaking suspicion that mothers qualifying for Medicaid might not have significant mobility means either. Arrogance indeed.
There are mandatory prenatal screenings in Germany. I've never heard of anyone equating that to treating people as lifestock. It seems preventing the preventable death is mostly about treating people like people. Are you sure you understood the Hippocratic Oath you took when becoming a physician? Or has that one been deemed un-American as well?
9
With that attitude, I wouldn't go to you for my medical "care" either.
10
Get a different line of work, Dan! If you're going to go all 'responsibility' as a physician, what's your opinion of cancer treatment for people who smoked for years?? Diabetes2? Strokes due to couch potato lifestyle, etc etc? Go on, tell me why these people are being treated "like livestock" or something, k?
8
We don't actually care about mothers at all, or at least that's what anyone watching us from the outside would be led to believe. We care about fetuses, until they are born, and then no more.
5
Mr Kristof, Americans do not love Moms. I can't understand why anyone, especially you, would think so. This a Hallmark card myth is as true as Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Americans do not love Moms. Any nation that can elect this travesty of Trump/Pence has no love for Moms. Moms die because God is punishing them because they must deserve it. Simple. Way to go GOP.
13
White Republicans would rather stand by and watch black women die than fix a broken system, even when they themselves will suffer from it. I've heard the hateful rhetoric all my life, there and in the rest of the South. This is what they believe. As long as they control the government, expect more women and infants to die, completely unnecessarily. Oh -- and the haters call themselves 'pro-life.'
8
Is the Texas Demographic the same? As a southern border state could a large number of illegal aliens could be pushing their death rates up?
5
Seems that the underlying Republican "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality is not so good for pregnant women.
6
Hard to pull yourself up by bootstraps if you're barefoot and pregnant.
4
Kristoff has gotten off on a wrong, or at least different track, in confounding maternal mortality with contraception. These are separate problems. Regardless of how many pregnancies there are, the high mortality rate is absolutely inexcusable. This must presumably be solved with more care for poor people, period. It would be interesting, by the way, to see the dependence of mortality rate on income. The high rate of poverty and the lack of contraception support are problems of different origin that will have to be solved by different methods.
6
He did not confound maternal mortality with contraception. Lack of contraception causes more pregnancies. A greater number of total pregnancies, especially among poorer/working class women, combined with lack of access to healthcare most certainly DOES lead to more women with complications which then increase the number of mortality for moms.
13
I have lived in Texas since graduating from college 35 years ago. Although it was a conservative state when I moved here, it continues lean more and more towards extreme religious right-wing views, which born-again Christians including my brother love. He lives in Indiana and is a Ted Cruz lovin' social conservative. I often tell him to move here during our debates because this state is as close to what he wants in the federal government.
He has stated, on more than one occasion, there will be suffering and people will die; but it is necessary to change societal norms. He would have no sympathy for any of the women discussed because sex should not occur out of wedlock. Issues like teen pregnancy and cervical cancer caused by HPV would be a non-issue if all sex only occurred in the monogamy of marriage.
There is no way, unfortunately, to sway the minds of people who agree with him if it doesn't support their religious view of what the world should be like.
He has stated, on more than one occasion, there will be suffering and people will die; but it is necessary to change societal norms. He would have no sympathy for any of the women discussed because sex should not occur out of wedlock. Issues like teen pregnancy and cervical cancer caused by HPV would be a non-issue if all sex only occurred in the monogamy of marriage.
There is no way, unfortunately, to sway the minds of people who agree with him if it doesn't support their religious view of what the world should be like.
27
And the saddest part is that he doesn't realize he is being used by very wealthy people who do not share his moral values, but are happy to use him to transfer even more wealth from the rest of us to their own overflowing pockets.
Rich people, after all, can do "immoral" things and buy their way out of facing the consequences time and time again, and the richer we allow them to become, the more that will happen.
Rich people, after all, can do "immoral" things and buy their way out of facing the consequences time and time again, and the richer we allow them to become, the more that will happen.
11
How are they shifting wealth from the rest of us to their own overflowing pockets?
1
None of these stories, charts and numbers will move Republicans, who make it clear that their end game is for Planned Parenthood to fold--or short of that, be turned into a small organization funded solely by private donations.
Republican opposition to abortion doesn't begin to explain why Republicans are not moved by poor and minority women dying during pregnancy and childbirth, and more, why they haven't developed any specific policies about women's reproductive health in general.
The answer is that this is part of their overall philosophy that sees "individual responsibility" to be the foundation of a good society. The very idea of government involvement with women's reproductive health--from artificial birth control and pregnancy spacing to maternal care--is anathema.
To Republicans, government help with these things "enables" women to behave promiscuously. That our modern age freed women from unwanted pregnancies, and even from high mortality rates associated with pregnancy and childbirth, they see as leading directly to a moral decay in society as a whole.
Finally, that Planned Parenthood is the major source of reproductive health care for poor, minority women enrages Republicans the most, for It feeds their narrative that the poor and minorities do not "take responsibility for their actions."
Republican opposition to abortion doesn't begin to explain why Republicans are not moved by poor and minority women dying during pregnancy and childbirth, and more, why they haven't developed any specific policies about women's reproductive health in general.
The answer is that this is part of their overall philosophy that sees "individual responsibility" to be the foundation of a good society. The very idea of government involvement with women's reproductive health--from artificial birth control and pregnancy spacing to maternal care--is anathema.
To Republicans, government help with these things "enables" women to behave promiscuously. That our modern age freed women from unwanted pregnancies, and even from high mortality rates associated with pregnancy and childbirth, they see as leading directly to a moral decay in society as a whole.
Finally, that Planned Parenthood is the major source of reproductive health care for poor, minority women enrages Republicans the most, for It feeds their narrative that the poor and minorities do not "take responsibility for their actions."
22
I am a foster parent. Many children in the foster care system are a result of unintended pregnancies. I am pro-life but a firm believer in free long term birth control. How much is it costing society to care for all the children in foster care (and when I say care, it is a minimum amount of care in many states)? All of these children are innocent and need our support to grow and thrive. However, let's give women free long term birth control and prevent future unwanted pregnancies... the cost benefit of paying for 1 IUD vs. caring for a child is clear.
32
I think "WE" in the article means government. We can also mean the mother and father, the extended family and friends. The church, the medical community, and other charity.
Mother's can wait to have children until they have an income and second adult before having children. Mothers and fathers can make sure the mom's live a healthy lifestyle for pregnancy, as can extended family.
We does not have to imply through government.
For my own family "WE" waited to have children until we could provide a good environment. WE made sure my wife got the right care and took care of herself. WE made sure our children got a good education . Our we included my wife and I and our parents who raised us to value responsible raising of children.
Mother's can wait to have children until they have an income and second adult before having children. Mothers and fathers can make sure the mom's live a healthy lifestyle for pregnancy, as can extended family.
We does not have to imply through government.
For my own family "WE" waited to have children until we could provide a good environment. WE made sure my wife got the right care and took care of herself. WE made sure our children got a good education . Our we included my wife and I and our parents who raised us to value responsible raising of children.
6
John:
It is highly improbable that your narrowed interpretation of "we" is the sole, best path for such a diverse nation. Your implications miss so much nuance, it is difficult to know where to start. It is fine if you want to pat yourself on the back--maybe not at the expense of so many others.
It is highly improbable that your narrowed interpretation of "we" is the sole, best path for such a diverse nation. Your implications miss so much nuance, it is difficult to know where to start. It is fine if you want to pat yourself on the back--maybe not at the expense of so many others.
20
WE were able to do all this planning only because WE were able to afford safe and reliable birth control and good prenatal care. Because WE were able to regulate the number and spacing of offspring, WE are able to provide a good education to the children in our small family.
Of course, WE were able to do all of this planning because make a good income and WE live in a financial and social category that allows US to look down on anyone without OUR resources and condemn them THEM for being in such straits.
WE should get of our high horses and actually try to understand the need for THEM to have the help in pregnancy protection and care.
Of course, WE were able to do all of this planning because make a good income and WE live in a financial and social category that allows US to look down on anyone without OUR resources and condemn them THEM for being in such straits.
WE should get of our high horses and actually try to understand the need for THEM to have the help in pregnancy protection and care.
6
Hmm. Your wife wasn't abandoned by her husband during her pregnancy because he couldn't take the idea of having a kid. But many women have been. Your wife didn't get pregnant because she was raped. But many girls have. Your couple did not discover during pregnancy that the baby suffered from an incurable and debilitating disease. But many couples have. Your wife did not get pregnant due to a malfunction of responsibly used contraceptives. But many women have. Your wife didn't get pregnant due to an unplanned moment of passion with a man she loved, at a point in her life when it was essential for her future and her well-being not to be pregnant. But many women have.
Basically, you and your wife haven't responsible so much as you have been LUCKY. Don't you have a moral duty to reach out a helping hand to those who have been less lucky than you?
Basically, you and your wife haven't responsible so much as you have been LUCKY. Don't you have a moral duty to reach out a helping hand to those who have been less lucky than you?
11
The last full paragraph should have been the first. Democrats believe in universal healthcare, Republicans don't. Until Republicans change or Democrats take over, we won't have first world quality health care for all mothers. That's the answer to your question.
24
The current administration and Congress will ensure women and children are given no 'special' consideration. Our Country, unfortunately, has had it in against women and children for quite some time. This is evident when researching health coverage. Pregnancy is not covered in many individual insurance policies before ACA. Now we have an administration threatening people if the ACA replacement is not completed. All the replacements end any consideration of women and children. Medicaid the insurance used by many women and children is slated to end.
What message do you think this sends?
Women should just suck it up? Children should just get with the "program"? What program? Not to be born in a poor family or a middle-class family? If family "planning" is off the table, what choice is left to the women and children?
Come on, this isn't rocket science. Either our government allows health care or not. Not everyone is fortunate to work for a corporation, company that provides excellent, all inclusive health care insurance. And that is not their fault.
What message do you think this sends?
Women should just suck it up? Children should just get with the "program"? What program? Not to be born in a poor family or a middle-class family? If family "planning" is off the table, what choice is left to the women and children?
Come on, this isn't rocket science. Either our government allows health care or not. Not everyone is fortunate to work for a corporation, company that provides excellent, all inclusive health care insurance. And that is not their fault.
28
This is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous.
21
This column has definitely been an eye opener. I also just read another article online that stated the Department of Defense since 2011 has spent over 294 million dollars on drugs for erectile dysfunction. These have been given to retired as well as active duty military men. Seems as long as the sexual ego of men in America continues to be more important than the need for good/affordable healthcare for women, the demise (downward spiral) of all America continues. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that 1 human minus one human equals 0.
33
That is an absolutely outrageous statistic and should make headlines every time Congress proposes an increase in the military budget. How much better off this country would be in every way if a woman were heading it and more women were elected to Congress.
11
Voters should take note that the Republican health care bills were, among other terrible things, an assault on women's health. The Republicans seem to want women to be either asexual or a virgin until married, at which point she is ready to have as many babies as possible in her own bedroom with her husband delivering the baby!
22
If the mother could crawl inside a uterus, then and only then will the Republicans believe she has a right to life. Once a human being is out of the uterus, it is every infant for themselves. If they want milk, they need to scrub floors.
30
The NPR article about this topic had a graph that extended until 2015. Why was the more recent data excluded from this article. Are you still trying to protect Obama and soften every ugly thing that occurred under his domain? Ugh, it is grow up time. Women are dying... is that not cause enough to get real about data?
http://www.npr.org/news/graphics/2017/05/propublica-mortality-rates.png
http://www.npr.org/news/graphics/2017/05/propublica-mortality-rates.png
5
The individual making this comment is either unable to compile facts or simply uses information products to lie. The graph presented in the referenced article is titled "Maternal Mortality Is Rising in the U.S. As It Declines Elsewhere" describing Deaths per 100,000 live births.
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate-of-matern...
Read the original article and judge for yourself. Don't take a trolls statement for fact - there's a reason their link leads to an untitled graph with no caption describing what's actually being measured.
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-rate-of-matern...
Read the original article and judge for yourself. Don't take a trolls statement for fact - there's a reason their link leads to an untitled graph with no caption describing what's actually being measured.
10
What is most salient from the initial bullet points of the article:
Hodgepodge of hospital protocols
Hospitals unprepared for maternal emergencies
Inadequate doctor training for specialists purportedly in the field
A WHO report on maternal death around 2000 concluded that malpractice was the basically sole cause for maternal mortality in developed countries.
This is a failure of medicine unrelated to contraception access or wanted or unwanted pregnancy. This is a soluble problem that begins with doctors!
Hodgepodge of hospital protocols
Hospitals unprepared for maternal emergencies
Inadequate doctor training for specialists purportedly in the field
A WHO report on maternal death around 2000 concluded that malpractice was the basically sole cause for maternal mortality in developed countries.
This is a failure of medicine unrelated to contraception access or wanted or unwanted pregnancy. This is a soluble problem that begins with doctors!
1
I served on the Board of Directors of an ambulatory healthcare clinic in Tulsa for four years and it was clear then and it is clear now that Christians will spend millions to prevent abortions but little for prenatal care, ob/gyn care and early childhood care. Hypocritical to the extreme.
60
Nick, haven't you heard Republicans think women are "hosts" who should be thankful if they are allowed to live beyond their reproductive age. They don't need autonomy nor bodily integrity because they aren't really human the way men are. That's the Republican philosophy. Men can tell women how to dress a la Paul Ryan and that women should view rape as a blessing or an opportunity! They don't love moms or babies for that matter. They love control and the ability to exert it in a myriad of mean and vindictive ways.
That's the truth.
That's the truth.
19
Nicholas- I wish reporters would follow up when the "pro-life" crowd starts hollering about fertilized eggs- ask these folks how large is this fertilized egg, what is a fallopian tube, what is prenatal care, why did Texas axe the facilities that let a pregnancy be safe? No one asks any of the sanctimonious old men even if they know the simplest things about bringing a child into this world.
And now as you say, Texas has a maternal death rate to rival third world, poor countries.
Please ask some questions!! In Trump's NYT interview the man pushing for cutting 20 million off of healthcare revealed -on his own- that he thought you paid about $12 for healthcare at 21yo, and then "cashed it in when you were 70". Reporters need to ask these opinioneers some questions- there is a vast amount of ignorance that is becoming deadly when blindly turned into policy.
And now as you say, Texas has a maternal death rate to rival third world, poor countries.
Please ask some questions!! In Trump's NYT interview the man pushing for cutting 20 million off of healthcare revealed -on his own- that he thought you paid about $12 for healthcare at 21yo, and then "cashed it in when you were 70". Reporters need to ask these opinioneers some questions- there is a vast amount of ignorance that is becoming deadly when blindly turned into policy.
19
The Republican men who control much of our government don't love moms. They see motherhood mainly as serving two purposes:
1. punishing women for sex
2. limiting women's opportunities to succeed outside the domestic sphere
Misogyny is the opposite of love.
1. punishing women for sex
2. limiting women's opportunities to succeed outside the domestic sphere
Misogyny is the opposite of love.
29
First of all, no MOST of all, right-to-lifers don't care about the living--only the unborn. Once the freshly born infant draws its first breath, they're on their own.
I don't know anything other than what you wrote about the women in this article, but I'm sure all those good, Christian, right-to-lifers will attribute their misfortune to god's divine retribution.
I don't know anything other than what you wrote about the women in this article, but I'm sure all those good, Christian, right-to-lifers will attribute their misfortune to god's divine retribution.
14
In the prairie mentality, it's every man for himself. It's you, your family, your strong back, your bible and your guns. But, this is the 21st century and there are too, many politicians that are nothing more than a "Ten Gallon" fraud!
They exist to serve themselves and maybe the oil industry.
They exist to serve themselves and maybe the oil industry.
12
In discussing with conservatives, it is clear the divide is partially racial, which is getting worse in our country, not better. At a social gathering that should have been non- political last evening, friends visiting in rural Wisconsin, but from elite Minneapolis where outspoken against the plight of the poor and ill. They wish none of their wealth to be shared with those who need it the most in the form of compassion or taxes. This is not going to change. Their emboldened anger to dismiss any viewpoint makes me profoundly sad and profoundly wish never to set at their dinner table again.
10
Oh, politicians just looovvveee mothers. The love the idea of motherhood even more. What they don't love is risking their jobs by raising taxes on the wealthy, who make significant contributions to their political election campaigns.
Politicians don't want to risk votes by being in favor of "killing babies", as the highly vocal pro-birth contingent insists Planned Parenthood does at every clinic. Far better to cut funds to the only source of prenatal care many low-income women have.
The connection between losing access to Planned Parenthood's health services (of which abortion is only a small part) and the deaths of mothers is too confusing for many voters to consider. They'll keep gobbling Trump's poisoned candy as our nation's health care disintegrates in a storm of political chaos.
Heartbreaking that this is what it takes to knock common sense into the heads of some voters, while their elected officials enjoy the best health care money can buy.
Politicians don't want to risk votes by being in favor of "killing babies", as the highly vocal pro-birth contingent insists Planned Parenthood does at every clinic. Far better to cut funds to the only source of prenatal care many low-income women have.
The connection between losing access to Planned Parenthood's health services (of which abortion is only a small part) and the deaths of mothers is too confusing for many voters to consider. They'll keep gobbling Trump's poisoned candy as our nation's health care disintegrates in a storm of political chaos.
Heartbreaking that this is what it takes to knock common sense into the heads of some voters, while their elected officials enjoy the best health care money can buy.
7
Alas, the cause of this travesty seems pretty obvious to me. In the US, the national religion is capitalism, and the God we worship is money.
I'll bet you that if the data in the article is re-analyzed to compare only people in the upper half of income distributions, the US is as good or better than any other country in the world in achieving low maternal deaths (for way too much money, but that is another topic).
For some bizarre reason, Americans just love Darwinian, law-of-the-jungle, survival of the fittest, even when they do it to themselves (?!) They entertain themselves by watching "Survivor", "The Apprentice", and "Game of Thrones". Is it surprising that, given a chance, they vote pregnant women off the island?
I'll bet you that if the data in the article is re-analyzed to compare only people in the upper half of income distributions, the US is as good or better than any other country in the world in achieving low maternal deaths (for way too much money, but that is another topic).
For some bizarre reason, Americans just love Darwinian, law-of-the-jungle, survival of the fittest, even when they do it to themselves (?!) They entertain themselves by watching "Survivor", "The Apprentice", and "Game of Thrones". Is it surprising that, given a chance, they vote pregnant women off the island?
11
Yes conservatives really like that Darwinian, law-of-the-jungle perspective. It allows them to blame the less fortunate for all of their problems. Interesting though that many right wing Christians reject science, Darwin in particular (the earth is only as old as the Bible proves).
3
Is America the exceptionally stupid nation?
Or do we just hate the idea of doing something smart for our people which might have a generally positive effect?
America is only as good as the well being of Americans.
Don't forget that.
Or do we just hate the idea of doing something smart for our people which might have a generally positive effect?
America is only as good as the well being of Americans.
Don't forget that.
9
It goes deeper than stupidity, although many Americans seem stupid because they are uninformed and lack or fail to employ critical thinking skills. The religious right/fundamentalists/evangelicals interpret the Bible literally (women be subservient), are insular and hold on to their fear of the "other" (women, people of color, other religions, etc. They've become a significant and controlling group of the Republican Party. As such, their faith dictates they are to move & act in the world according to their God and convince everyone else to become like them. Hence the intolerance. They're afraid of people who aren't like them.
4
This is Texas. Where parents would rather see their daughter end up in a life of poverty from getting pregnant in high school than offer her birth control, comprehensive sex education, or abortion. Chastity is more important than a girl or woman's life. While men want sex, and it is pretty difficult to tell a husband that you won't have sex with him, if you die in childbirth, who cares? We don't want women having sex, and we punish them as much as possible when they do.
23
"And this is pro-life?"
The answer is, of course, a resounding "no."
Republicans are for minimal government except when it comes to women's issues, such as abortion, contraception and so on. Most of them who proclaim to be "pro-life" also support death penalty.
Your colleague David Brooks was sort of extolling the virtues of Jeff Flake (Republican Senator from Arizona) , whose voting record on healthcare in general, and women's healthcare in particular, is hardly stellar. http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Jeff_Flake.htm
Of course, there are Republicans such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski who thankfully helped stop their colleagues' assault on Obamacare and thus helped avoid the disastrous consequences that would have ensued.
Women should take note and support candidates who hold progressive views on healthcare, including women's healthcare issues.
The answer is, of course, a resounding "no."
Republicans are for minimal government except when it comes to women's issues, such as abortion, contraception and so on. Most of them who proclaim to be "pro-life" also support death penalty.
Your colleague David Brooks was sort of extolling the virtues of Jeff Flake (Republican Senator from Arizona) , whose voting record on healthcare in general, and women's healthcare in particular, is hardly stellar. http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Jeff_Flake.htm
Of course, there are Republicans such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski who thankfully helped stop their colleagues' assault on Obamacare and thus helped avoid the disastrous consequences that would have ensued.
Women should take note and support candidates who hold progressive views on healthcare, including women's healthcare issues.
8
Thank you for an ever timely reminder of our folly. Folly of our congressmen (and they are all men), who were delivered by a woman at her own risk and hoping her son would be weary before condemning her, or future mothers-to-be to die unnecessarily the 'next time'. Although I always hope that abortions remain rare (and safe and legal), I am not so sure some of the nastiest congressmen opposing Planned Parenthood should have been spared, as they willfully ignore women's plight to be included as equal in health decisions, hence, guaranteed available infra-structure (clinics, physicians, etc) to disburse justice in our male-driven violent world. Accordingly, as our 'machismo' is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, we urge women to take control, and get involved in politics, and have not only their say, but a distinct force in getting things done. Have we men forgotten who are those women who breast-fed us to maturity, and doing their best to make us honorable, decent human beings? What stunted our growth to not understand the 'golden rule'?
4
I don't get it. You say that some of us think this is irresponsible, but we should look at our responsibility in not getting everyone access to long term contraceptives. It's irresponsible, and it's not our responsibilty to give them contraceptives. It probably IS pretty good policy anyway, but to say that it's irresponsible not to give them is really absolving them of responsibility for their own choices.
3
It IS good policy. Full stop. And the only way to do it on a large scale is government federal policy. You are turning the 'us' into a personal thing. It's not. It's 'we the people'.
Oh, and having a responsibility toward someone (like providing information on the dangers of smoking) does NOT absolve them of the responsibility (not smoking). Again, it's not zero-sum.
Now do you get it?
Oh, and having a responsibility toward someone (like providing information on the dangers of smoking) does NOT absolve them of the responsibility (not smoking). Again, it's not zero-sum.
Now do you get it?
6
Just think what a Republican Congress and a Trump Supreme Court will mean for women's health over the next ten years. Return to the United States in 2027, and the maternal death rates of 2017 will seem like a dream.
7
Americans love moms who look like their own moms. They don't love moms with brown skins, or moms who speak a different language at home, or moms without husbands, or moms with "too many" kids, or moms who can't get well-paying jobs with health insurance because they are poor moms with interrupted educations and brown skins. This article highlights one of the nastier aspects of American hypocrisy.
16
Nick, thanks once again. I just can't figure out why the anti-choice crowd is also against reliable (and free) birth control. It makes no sense, but then again this is not about about sensible thinking. It's about religion and some purely misogynistic attitudes. Lordy I hope there are tapes...
7
Pat, the reason their against birth control, free or not, is because they're against sex outside of marriage and against sex for women's pleasure.
Just can't put it any plainer.
Just can't put it any plainer.
3
Actually, that's the "surface" reason - not being able to mind their own business. The REAL reason: using pregnancy and children to CONTROL WOMEN. Make no mistake - that is the actual motivation. Force pregnancies on women and keep them down - force them into bad marriages young, thwart their education and participation in the workforce, force them to marry to get by. Why else do you think that they want to change the rape laws?
4
They aren't mothers they're wombs. There is no protection for wombs or their owners. There is only protection for fetuses. Why? Women's plumbing is icky to men. Politicians want to force the current generation of women to have a quiver-full of children to make up for all the children who weren't born over the last 50 years. When it come to women, men only know the stick approach, no carrots (healthcare, maternity leave, stay at home stipend). There are too many nonworking men on welfare so we are going to destroy healthcare for the entire country to force them back to work and according to fake fact Fox somewhere there is a woman pushing out babies for the extra welfare money...
6
Here is the problem of religious and secular extremism - in the United States of America in the twenty-first century.
Insist that only abstinence can be used to prevent pregnancy; insist that the costs of health care for women and children should be an individual responsibility; declare that any couple should only have children if they can afford to pay for all the possible needs of those children for the next 20 years - even if that means coping with a hole-in-the-heart baby (like Jimmy Kimmel's) or a severely disabled child.
The only logical outcomes of such a set of public policies are (1) that anyone not blessed with reliably high incomes should not have any babies - and so not have any sex or (2) that anyone whose children - or wives - or girlfriends die from lack of health care should accept that God and/or good social organisation (Ayn Rand style) meant it that way.
Insist that only abstinence can be used to prevent pregnancy; insist that the costs of health care for women and children should be an individual responsibility; declare that any couple should only have children if they can afford to pay for all the possible needs of those children for the next 20 years - even if that means coping with a hole-in-the-heart baby (like Jimmy Kimmel's) or a severely disabled child.
The only logical outcomes of such a set of public policies are (1) that anyone not blessed with reliably high incomes should not have any babies - and so not have any sex or (2) that anyone whose children - or wives - or girlfriends die from lack of health care should accept that God and/or good social organisation (Ayn Rand style) meant it that way.
5
Pence has the answer: the problem will take care of itself if more men followed his lead and refused to have a meal alone with a woman who is not his wife. There. Problem solved.
6
It is a travesty; however, we should refer to contraception as included in coverage v free.
America’s obsessive rw radicals find so many ways to endanger our health, our rights, economic security & democracy.
Frankly the Gop rw want only those they deem 'deserving' to have access to health care. They like to make things harder for us, not easier ---for health, voting, education, equality, etc. They are anti contraception, abortion, sex education, health clinics, and anti Govt's duty to citizens.
They also endanger our right to vote, closing polling stations, creating ways to making it difficult, with voter ID laws, forcing us to vote on work days, stand in line for hours, with transport and time off from jobs difficult
The rw appropriates the language of our founding ideals---Freedom, small govt, individualism, and and personal responsibility. And of course, Christian values. And our revered Supreme Court cooperates, letting an employer deny contraception in worker health plans----for religious reasons, naturally.
It’s all a pattern. They must sit and think up as many ways as they can to weaken our rights and well being. Darwinian survival of the fittest is their ideology.
The American right wing functions like a vindictive dictatorship existing within our constitutional democracy. This US shame is truly exceptional among other democracies.
But Kristof ---you must write on the contrast of other countries' attitudes and how they achieve their better outcomes. Instead of only laments, we need positive role models, to throw in our lawmakers' faces.
Frankly the Gop rw want only those they deem 'deserving' to have access to health care. They like to make things harder for us, not easier ---for health, voting, education, equality, etc. They are anti contraception, abortion, sex education, health clinics, and anti Govt's duty to citizens.
They also endanger our right to vote, closing polling stations, creating ways to making it difficult, with voter ID laws, forcing us to vote on work days, stand in line for hours, with transport and time off from jobs difficult
The rw appropriates the language of our founding ideals---Freedom, small govt, individualism, and and personal responsibility. And of course, Christian values. And our revered Supreme Court cooperates, letting an employer deny contraception in worker health plans----for religious reasons, naturally.
It’s all a pattern. They must sit and think up as many ways as they can to weaken our rights and well being. Darwinian survival of the fittest is their ideology.
The American right wing functions like a vindictive dictatorship existing within our constitutional democracy. This US shame is truly exceptional among other democracies.
But Kristof ---you must write on the contrast of other countries' attitudes and how they achieve their better outcomes. Instead of only laments, we need positive role models, to throw in our lawmakers' faces.
5
Thanks, Nicholas.
Living in Texas, it is important for the rest of the country to know what is really happening here. Take it from someone who lives here: the oppression is palpable. If anyone said this where I work, they would be fired...
I don't think any major corporation should expand here, or any national association meet here, until the state government does something about this...including full funding of Planned Parenthood.
The whole country needs to recognize that the Republican party has declared a war on women. The ONLY life they care about is fetal life. One you're born, it's every man for himself... and none of those men care about women.
Living in Texas, it is important for the rest of the country to know what is really happening here. Take it from someone who lives here: the oppression is palpable. If anyone said this where I work, they would be fired...
I don't think any major corporation should expand here, or any national association meet here, until the state government does something about this...including full funding of Planned Parenthood.
The whole country needs to recognize that the Republican party has declared a war on women. The ONLY life they care about is fetal life. One you're born, it's every man for himself... and none of those men care about women.
12
Mr. Kristof does not tell us how many of the women cited in the article are U.S. citizens. Nor does he raise the challenge of whether President Trump's agenda to deport illegal aliens and strengthen border security, thus freeing up more ,,unds to spend on the citizenry, would mitigate, reduce the rate of mortality in pregnant women in the US. Obvious that major problem is "anchor babies," a crude term but nonetheless appropriate to describe children whose mothers are able to slip across the border, give birth,in which case child and mother automatically acquire status, and become entitled to benefits denied even some US nationals!Allowing the poor, undocumented, to cross our borders does not make us richer.Liberal critics of Pres. Trump are adept at describing a problem, but chary of proposing solutions.IJuliana waited in line 2 years before being allowed to take that flight from Accra to JFK and "fouler le sol americain!"Let others "en fassent autant!"More encouragement from the media to President would, I am sure, motivate him to work even harder on behalf of the country.NK should take this eventuality into account before writing derogatory articles about our vox populi, choice of over 61 million of us, if you please!
3
Nothing will change this man because he has no conscience.
3
"If we love our moms, why do we let them die ?"
I am beset with more such questions.
If we love our moms :
- why do we let men enter women's bathroom, under the cover of transgender ?
- why do we let some threaten them with guns, under the cover of second amendment ?
- why do we take decent healthcare away from them, under the cover of national fiscal responsibility ?
Why, Mr. Kristof, why ?
I am beset with more such questions.
If we love our moms :
- why do we let men enter women's bathroom, under the cover of transgender ?
- why do we let some threaten them with guns, under the cover of second amendment ?
- why do we take decent healthcare away from them, under the cover of national fiscal responsibility ?
Why, Mr. Kristof, why ?
"“I use condoms,” she said, then corrected herself: “I use condoms sometimes.” Some of you readers are thinking this is outrageous irresponsibility." Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't it men who should be responsible for providing and using condoms? Why is it always the women who get blamed for accidental pregnancies? Oral contraceptives, IUDs, and diaphrams involve costs than uninsured women often cannot bear.
245
This is indeed tragedy, but I wish Americans would stop with the hypocrisy.
First off, mortality is high when the female is poor. If we don't guarantee healthcare to everyone - what else are we expecting? Yet, rural, southern and white America is keenly interested in keeping healthcare away from the poor, and from blacks and Hispanics. The war on poverty? Now it is a war on the poor. Americans hate a lot; but nothing more than poor people. And if you are a poor minority woman at your most vulnerable (pre-natal days), I guess you are fried.
Second, why bother with Texas? They are teaching creationism in their schools (yup, in the same state as the great U of T, and Texas A&M). We cannot elect Christian Taliban into power, and expect social justice. You remember seeing Perry, clapping and grinning like a fool while Trump addressed his youth rally? That guy ran Texas for a long time. The correlation between religiosity and social injustice seems near perfect in America - if we take county or state as a unit of analysis. Yes, Ireland is a bit of an anomaly, but Scandinavian countries with excellent healthcare numbers are largely post-religion societies.
So while we are lecturing the rest of the world, we are warring with America's poor while electing the American Taliban. What are we expecting? Healthcare outcomes to not reflect those in Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Nothing can insulate us from the choices we make at the ballot box.
Kalidan
First off, mortality is high when the female is poor. If we don't guarantee healthcare to everyone - what else are we expecting? Yet, rural, southern and white America is keenly interested in keeping healthcare away from the poor, and from blacks and Hispanics. The war on poverty? Now it is a war on the poor. Americans hate a lot; but nothing more than poor people. And if you are a poor minority woman at your most vulnerable (pre-natal days), I guess you are fried.
Second, why bother with Texas? They are teaching creationism in their schools (yup, in the same state as the great U of T, and Texas A&M). We cannot elect Christian Taliban into power, and expect social justice. You remember seeing Perry, clapping and grinning like a fool while Trump addressed his youth rally? That guy ran Texas for a long time. The correlation between religiosity and social injustice seems near perfect in America - if we take county or state as a unit of analysis. Yes, Ireland is a bit of an anomaly, but Scandinavian countries with excellent healthcare numbers are largely post-religion societies.
So while we are lecturing the rest of the world, we are warring with America's poor while electing the American Taliban. What are we expecting? Healthcare outcomes to not reflect those in Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Nothing can insulate us from the choices we make at the ballot box.
Kalidan
21
Everything written here is true. As is the fact the the Texas Legislature shifted $110m away from women's healthcare at the last moment in the past session and its main reason for Gov Abbott to call a special session was to address transgender bathroom access. As Sen McCain once decried, 'Wackos!.
I had to leave Texas, as a chronically ill person because of the state's total disregard for healthcare for its citizens. I still own a small business there, but I am receiving so much better care in Oregon while being treated with dignity, in Texas the ACA and its patients are treated like an anathema.
Heartbreaking.
I had to leave Texas, as a chronically ill person because of the state's total disregard for healthcare for its citizens. I still own a small business there, but I am receiving so much better care in Oregon while being treated with dignity, in Texas the ACA and its patients are treated like an anathema.
Heartbreaking.
10
Folks, I gotta say it.
I wish, how I wish, that the popular vote winner were in the White House.
Yeah. Her. The woman who tried to bring us universal health care. The woman who stood in front of a hostile world and declared that women's rights are human rights.
Because, you know what? They are.
Hillary Clinton, I miss you.
I wish, how I wish, that the popular vote winner were in the White House.
Yeah. Her. The woman who tried to bring us universal health care. The woman who stood in front of a hostile world and declared that women's rights are human rights.
Because, you know what? They are.
Hillary Clinton, I miss you.
24
It is shocking. I live in Houston and subscribe Houston Chronicle. Houston has so many big hospitals and is renowned for its medical professional work. Why did I read in our local newspaper? Shame on Houston.
4
If we love babies, why do we let them die? Planned Parenthood does not seem to object to killing babies when they perform abortions but of course they make quite a large profit when doing so. They should get out of the abortion business and concentrate solely on caring for pregnant women who want to give birth. We should never allow a woman to die due to insufficient care. That is inhumane. Planned Parenthood should be in the business of saving all lives as life is precious.
1
You said that "We should never allow a woman to die due to insufficient care. That is inhumane." but you apparently think it okay for women, whose condition is so serious that abortion is the only way to save their lives, be left to die.
Talk about inhumane.
Talk about inhumane.
7
No babies are killed by Planned Parenthood. Full stop. we need to prevent unintended pregnancies, provide higher quality women's health care (including abortion) and maternal care. Women should be giving birth because they want to, not because they had limited access to contraception and/or abortion. Women are more than involuntary biological incubators.
4
MMR (Maternity Mortality Rate) Figures for 2010 from the CIA by country : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/22...
With an MMR of 21 Mothers dying per 100,000 live Births the U.S ranks equal with Iran and is has more Maternal Deaths per 100,000 Live Births than 46 Countries including:
Turkey (20)
Croatia (17)
Serbia (12)
Czechia (5)
Poland (5)
Greece (3)
Estonia (2)
and 39 other Countries that do much better than the U.S in keeping it's Mothers alive through past Childbirth.
With an MMR of 21 Mothers dying per 100,000 live Births the U.S ranks equal with Iran and is has more Maternal Deaths per 100,000 Live Births than 46 Countries including:
Turkey (20)
Croatia (17)
Serbia (12)
Czechia (5)
Poland (5)
Greece (3)
Estonia (2)
and 39 other Countries that do much better than the U.S in keeping it's Mothers alive through past Childbirth.
12
Exactly, that's pro-life, a catchy euphemism for ignorance, diffuse hatred and, regrettably, giving some meaning to religious fanatics.
11
The awful truth is that conservtives treat women's lives cheaply. Remember how Jeb Bush treated women's health care costs as a frivolity? Any political movement which treats women's bodies as targets is the farthest from "pro-life."
12
ProPublica's reports have gained a lot of attention the last few months, albeit in publications considered anathema to the current White House: http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/527806002/focus-on-infants-during-childbir... .
From that piece:
"New mothers are older than they used to be, with more complex medical histories. Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, so many women don't address chronic health issues beforehand. Greater prevalence of C-sections leads to more life-threatening complications. The fragmented health system makes it harder for new mothers, especially those without good insurance, to get the care they need. Confusion about how to recognize worrisome symptoms and treat obstetric emergencies makes caregivers more prone to error."
This should not be a partisan issue, i.e. about adequate health care for young mothers. Yet there they were, the Republican "leaders," arguing to defund Planned Parenthood, whose main goal (contrary to what partisan screeds would have one believe) is health care for those same women, those mothers-to-be. There they were, arguing to use Medicaid funding as a piggy-bank for tax cuts.
Note to Congress: Please get your act together. Make an attempt to let us function like a modern, developed nation. Heaven forbid, reach across the aisle and get to work. It is past time.
From that piece:
"New mothers are older than they used to be, with more complex medical histories. Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, so many women don't address chronic health issues beforehand. Greater prevalence of C-sections leads to more life-threatening complications. The fragmented health system makes it harder for new mothers, especially those without good insurance, to get the care they need. Confusion about how to recognize worrisome symptoms and treat obstetric emergencies makes caregivers more prone to error."
This should not be a partisan issue, i.e. about adequate health care for young mothers. Yet there they were, the Republican "leaders," arguing to defund Planned Parenthood, whose main goal (contrary to what partisan screeds would have one believe) is health care for those same women, those mothers-to-be. There they were, arguing to use Medicaid funding as a piggy-bank for tax cuts.
Note to Congress: Please get your act together. Make an attempt to let us function like a modern, developed nation. Heaven forbid, reach across the aisle and get to work. It is past time.
8
The inability of the conservative movement to see the absurdity of these statistics in the light of the virulent opposition to abortion shows how fundamentally shallow they are. They will not fund appropriate pre-natal care for mother and child yet they will spend spend countless hours and dollars on protests at abortion clinics. To them that child is utterly precious - right up to minute it can breath on its own. If a mother is poor or single they also see a pregnancy as a kind of punishment for sex too and the consequences almost a form of divine punishment to boot.
10
No wonder The United States won't make paid Maternity Leave mandatory...
It has been made into a really bad investment.
Sad.
It has been made into a really bad investment.
Sad.
6
Everyday I become more ashamed and angry at American governance. Texas legislators should be ashamed of themselves. They have blood on their hands and are responsible for bringing babies into this world who are sentenced to lives of poverty and neglect. Let Texas start paying for their self-imposed sins.
7
Great example of irony--"christians" worry about abortion but wont provide adequate care for pregnant mothers and living children....
17
What a tragic reality for American women. We are some of the sickest people in the world and we die prematurely due to our miserable healthcare system that seeks to take every penny from every living soul and provide us with substandard, haphazard care. But it is a spiritual sickness in this country that prevents the nation from coming up with something better and more equitable. Until that changes, we are stuck with poor healthcare and needless death and misery.
137
Mr. Kristof, your article should be a rallying cry to women in all political parties, all economic and educational strata, and all states to remember how effective and empowering the Womens March on Washington was.
Women working with women will improve society and our country.
(and of course men work with women's groups also)
But we can never allow Congress to put our fate in the hands of 13 OLD men again. Men who - even if they have wives or daughters - are misogynists = a hatred of women.
It took two courageous, honest, compassionate, wonderful women who were steadfast in ALL NO votes (and one man who thankfully had a conscience) to stare down and defeat the deplorable Republican health bills in the Senate.
NEVER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN !
Women's groups should allign with groups that protect the disabled, the LBGT community, people of every color, immigrants and all groups being threatened by the white old men of congress to work together to see that every one has health insurance, that Planned Parenthood and public health clinics are OPEN serving all who need them.
We need women to turn against the hatred in this administration. How can there be any women for trump???
How can any women accept the profanity and abuse of scarmucci???
Women united will save our country !
Women working with women will improve society and our country.
(and of course men work with women's groups also)
But we can never allow Congress to put our fate in the hands of 13 OLD men again. Men who - even if they have wives or daughters - are misogynists = a hatred of women.
It took two courageous, honest, compassionate, wonderful women who were steadfast in ALL NO votes (and one man who thankfully had a conscience) to stare down and defeat the deplorable Republican health bills in the Senate.
NEVER ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN !
Women's groups should allign with groups that protect the disabled, the LBGT community, people of every color, immigrants and all groups being threatened by the white old men of congress to work together to see that every one has health insurance, that Planned Parenthood and public health clinics are OPEN serving all who need them.
We need women to turn against the hatred in this administration. How can there be any women for trump???
How can any women accept the profanity and abuse of scarmucci???
Women united will save our country !
13
We like Motherhood and Apple Pie. The mothers are June Cleaver, who knows how to make the pie.
We don't have much collective concern for "those mothers" who are any woman who doesn't fit the mold, and poverty and race are mold busters. Single motherhood is out too. In fact, it isn't motherhood we like, it is June Cleaver.
The mashup of sexual hangups and cultural judgements that make a large portion of of our society, or at least our legislators want to ban sex education, make birth control difficult and expensive, limit abortion leave women at risk, especially if they are working without benefits.
I have friends and family who had severe complications. My cousin nearly bled out in her home; my roommate was life-flighted across 100 miles of farm and forrest to deliver the baby before the stroke from pre-eclampsia could kill her. A niece was delivered a month early - but two to three months after the early contractions started. Doctors kept the pregnancy viable.
Would they all have survived without healthcare?
It would help if we started to think of people as people, rather than as cautionary tales and objects of scorn. It helps if you actually get a chance to meet and talk to some of the anti-June Cleavers, and discover the wealth of value we are discarding through careless contempt.
We don't have much collective concern for "those mothers" who are any woman who doesn't fit the mold, and poverty and race are mold busters. Single motherhood is out too. In fact, it isn't motherhood we like, it is June Cleaver.
The mashup of sexual hangups and cultural judgements that make a large portion of of our society, or at least our legislators want to ban sex education, make birth control difficult and expensive, limit abortion leave women at risk, especially if they are working without benefits.
I have friends and family who had severe complications. My cousin nearly bled out in her home; my roommate was life-flighted across 100 miles of farm and forrest to deliver the baby before the stroke from pre-eclampsia could kill her. A niece was delivered a month early - but two to three months after the early contractions started. Doctors kept the pregnancy viable.
Would they all have survived without healthcare?
It would help if we started to think of people as people, rather than as cautionary tales and objects of scorn. It helps if you actually get a chance to meet and talk to some of the anti-June Cleavers, and discover the wealth of value we are discarding through careless contempt.
13
Thank you, Nicholas Kristof, for highlighting this issue. Not that it will have any effect on the maniacal anti-birth control, anti-abortion set; but hopefully others will see this and resolve to work even harder to protect healthcare access for all, women's healthcare clinics, and the federal programs that help pay for these. It is truly a disgrace that so many women and their babies are at risk in this country; let's demand that we do better by them!
12
The article ends with the question, “And this is pro-life?”
The Benedictine nun, Sister Joan Chittister, answered this question in a 2004 interview with Bill Moyers:
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
If we want healthy births we need healthy mothers. They must have adequate, safe housing and good nutrition and full medical care – and this must extend well after the child is born.
And if all women were provided with safe, long-lasting contraception they could choose when to have a child, and not have it thrust upon them.
Shame on Texas! Shame on the U.S.! We can do much better. Look at our neighbors around the world.
The Benedictine nun, Sister Joan Chittister, answered this question in a 2004 interview with Bill Moyers:
"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
If we want healthy births we need healthy mothers. They must have adequate, safe housing and good nutrition and full medical care – and this must extend well after the child is born.
And if all women were provided with safe, long-lasting contraception they could choose when to have a child, and not have it thrust upon them.
Shame on Texas! Shame on the U.S.! We can do much better. Look at our neighbors around the world.
19
"One factor is that Texas politicians, on a rampage against Planned Parenthood, have in effect closed a number of women’s health clinics."
Mr. Kristol carefully "forgets" to mention that all the Texas politicians are Christian Republicans, like all the other Republican politicians in every state in this country determined to destroy Planned Parenthood and, thus, access to health care.
It's the Republicans - overwhelmingly - who vote against anything that will help to alleviate this shameful rate of maternal mortality. We're becoming a third world and third world country with the Republicans in charge. Simply put, they hate women.
Mr. Kristol carefully "forgets" to mention that all the Texas politicians are Christian Republicans, like all the other Republican politicians in every state in this country determined to destroy Planned Parenthood and, thus, access to health care.
It's the Republicans - overwhelmingly - who vote against anything that will help to alleviate this shameful rate of maternal mortality. We're becoming a third world and third world country with the Republicans in charge. Simply put, they hate women.
13
Where are the hearts of the Republican legislature in Texas. Do these elected officials have access to unfettered Viagra or birth control pills through their tax payer provided health care? Do they get "special subsidies" like their brethren in the House and Senate through a special exchange in D.C.,paid for by the US taxpayers?
The hypocrisy of Texas and our nation's leaders is mind boggling.
Let's take their special benefits away and see how fast things change.
The hypocrisy of Texas and our nation's leaders is mind boggling.
Let's take their special benefits away and see how fast things change.
9
First, the majority of people who are aggressive anti-abortionists are not "pro-life", rather they are pro-birth. Most want cut some to programs that support mother and child before and after birth. That is not pro-life.
Second, Mr. Kristof cites the reported numbers for abortions. Those numbers do not capture the number of DIY abortions. Misoprostil, mifepristone, alprostadil and cocaine (for later in pregnancy) are all readily available. Ask the ER docs about how many more women with incomplete miscarriages or excess vaginal bleeding are showing up at their doors.
As a society we have chosen to degrade and marginalize the unwashed masses.
Second, Mr. Kristof cites the reported numbers for abortions. Those numbers do not capture the number of DIY abortions. Misoprostil, mifepristone, alprostadil and cocaine (for later in pregnancy) are all readily available. Ask the ER docs about how many more women with incomplete miscarriages or excess vaginal bleeding are showing up at their doors.
As a society we have chosen to degrade and marginalize the unwashed masses.
6
I'm surprised you did not cite the excellent work by ProPublica on this exact issue. They have done an amazing job pulling the grim statistics on maternal death together, and gathering the stories of women who have died. https://www.propublica.org/article/lost-mothers-maternal-health-died-chi... -- but sincere thanks for your attention to this issue. Especially while so many men BORN OF WOMAN are whining about not wanting insurance plans to cover prenatal care, birth control, etc. Our casual disregard of women's health is also bad for babies, if that helps you all swallow the bitter pill that we are all in this together.
9
Medicaid benefits for low-income and uninsured women in Texas end 6 weeks after a vaginal delivery and 8 weeks after a C-section. The maternal death rate includes any death within one year of having a baby and there is a check box on all American death certificates about pregnancy. Texas refused the Medicaid expansion and has one of the highest rates of uninsured people. The US has the highest maternal death rate of developed nations. This article is a fitting coda to the events in Washington this week.
11
Yes, Mr. Kristof, this is pro-life. It's just pro-WHITE-life, pro-RICH-life. The marginalized poor women of color just don't figure in Mr. Trump's (and Mr. Pence's) America.
8
I'm not buying any do this anti- American non sense.
Cite more sources for these baseless stats.....
Cite more sources for these baseless stats.....
1
Oh fer crying out loud. Maternal death in America is a huge problem. Google it.
What is "anti-American" is the callous disregard of the GOP policies that endanger American mothers.
7
The rationale behind many policies like defunding Planned Parenthood, "abstinence only" sex ed and our current health care quagmire is this: individuals should be free to decide what to do, responsible for their decisions, and therefore suffer the consequences of their decisions, entirely free of government interference. Therefore, if a woman chooses to have sex, she must deal with the consequences. And if she wants to have a baby, she should be financially prepared to do so without "our tax dollars" paying for it.
Obviously people often fail to do "the right thing" - and in most cases it's not quite that simple. Conservative ideology paints the world in black and white and zero gray; the real world is of course a thousand shades of gray.
The suffering we Americans subject ourselves to reflects this desire to see the world in black and white instead of recognizing and factoring in these many varying hues. It's easier that way: Planned Parenthood does abortions - so stop giving them tax dollars! Simple. Easy.
Except people die from this insanity.
Obviously people often fail to do "the right thing" - and in most cases it's not quite that simple. Conservative ideology paints the world in black and white and zero gray; the real world is of course a thousand shades of gray.
The suffering we Americans subject ourselves to reflects this desire to see the world in black and white instead of recognizing and factoring in these many varying hues. It's easier that way: Planned Parenthood does abortions - so stop giving them tax dollars! Simple. Easy.
Except people die from this insanity.
5
Republicans don't want to pay for birth control. If a woman gets pregnant, they definitely don't want her to have an abortion. They don't want insurance to have to pay for prenatal care. After a child is born, they don't want society to have to be involved with funding decent schools or making sure decent food is available. And, of course, the whole Trump Care debacle was put into motion by having a group of 13 white men make all of the decisions. Any lessons?
12
No, it's not pro-life. What the Republican Party is doing, I call "Christian fascist;" no, not what Jesus would do (if he existed), but rather requiring that people hew to a vaguely Christian value, in violation of the first ten words of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
It's not pro-life. It's anti-life, and anti-American.
It's not pro-life. It's anti-life, and anti-American.
10
America's response to planed parenthood and parenthood in general is simply tragic. Our health care stature in the world is deplorable too. Care and medication costs are too high, frequently out of reach for far too many people, and our government still refuses to take the steps to initiate the necessary cures. Our leaders close their eyes to them or are paid to fight against them.
Americans are being beaten like a drum. The religious groups that use God's name to fight birth control or abortions are hugely damaging too.
Both common sense and decency lie in the ditch beside our roadway to cruelty and nowhere. Common sense and good judgement are not sins.
Americans are being beaten like a drum. The religious groups that use God's name to fight birth control or abortions are hugely damaging too.
Both common sense and decency lie in the ditch beside our roadway to cruelty and nowhere. Common sense and good judgement are not sins.
10
The religious right in this nation is not "pro motherhood" - instead, it is pro forced birth. They revile and fear women's sexuality, and seek to control women's lives and reproductive healthcare at all costs, subjugating women to the status of procreative chattel with no right to determine when, or whether, we choose to become pregnant. The religious right particularly condescends to and shames poor women, imposing expensive, needless, intrusive and deliberately denigrating obstacles and forced waiting periods in order to prevent women from avoiding or terminating unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Denying Medicaid and other insurance coverage for abortion and contraception is another favored tactic of the right wing religious medievalists, and they have no problem shutting down Planned Parenthood clinics in order to do that. They have been enabled by John Roberts and the extremist Christian brigade on SCOTUS, in his odious opinion that "gentle counseling," as he put it, outside clinics does not place undue burdens or emotional trauma upon women seeking care there. Of course he is protected by 250' perimeters, and has never encountered that "gentle counseling," which generally incorporates screaming and harassment, photographs, threats, and other intimidation. Let us get real, here: the extremist Christians seek permanent white male domination over all women. 7/29, 8:46 PM
10
Cuba - a very poor country - puts our maternal/infant mortality statistics to shame. High-risk pregnant women are offered a place in a special "home" where they live and are monitored until delivery - which is usually in a hospital.
The US ranks way behind many countries. Outrageous and disgraceful.
The US ranks way behind many countries. Outrageous and disgraceful.
13
What can you say about a political party, the GOP, that in both the House and the Senate came up with bills that would throw 22-23 million Americans out of health care. In the Senate, this would cause an estimated death rate of 827 people/per YES vote/per year/every year? 43,000 American deaths is a conservative estimate---not to mention doubling the personally bankruptcies due to medical bills. (To put this in perspective, the GOP bills would cause 43,000 dealths/per year vs 3000 deaths from 9/11.)
In 2018 we all should be aware that the GOP pushed policies that if enacted into law would make us far more likely to be killed, injured or bankrupt due to the GOP party than any risk we have from a foreign terrorist organization.
Look at Kansas, a gutted state struggling to maintain minimal school standards, for the GOP policies our Congress advocates in miserable living colo.
In 2018 we all should be aware that the GOP pushed policies that if enacted into law would make us far more likely to be killed, injured or bankrupt due to the GOP party than any risk we have from a foreign terrorist organization.
Look at Kansas, a gutted state struggling to maintain minimal school standards, for the GOP policies our Congress advocates in miserable living colo.
9
Pro abortion advocates criticize pro life people for not taking care of babies and mothers before and after birth. That is strictly false. They do assist and do not leave them to fend for themselves. Help is always available. What assistance does Planned Parenthood give fo babies and mothers before and after birth? That is the question that should be asked and answered.
11
In many states, Planned Parenthood is the primary provider of women's health services, pre-natal care and post-delivery care. Since the role of Planned Parenthood is about the adult woman and not about children (as is the case with AARP, the VA, and many other admirable institutions), they don't employ pediatricians or provide much in the way of children's healthcare.
Defunding Planned Parenthood is how bad people express their hatred for their fellow citizens in service of their twisted agenda.
Defunding Planned Parenthood is how bad people express their hatred for their fellow citizens in service of their twisted agenda.
5
Perhaps on a personal level that is true, but the GOP has no interest in caring for babies and mothers after birth. Cuts to Medicaid, public schools, food assistance, etc, etc, etc. are proof.
3
Citation needed. There are not any articles on any of the major anti choice news sites right now advocating for greater access to healthcare or government assistance. Most lambaste the ACA.
Tossing a pack of pampers at a woman and inviting her to bible study class isn't meaningful help.
Tossing a pack of pampers at a woman and inviting her to bible study class isn't meaningful help.
7
As long as we continue to support a culture where it's acceptable for physicians to schedule an early c-section so they can make their family vacation, or so they aren't inconvenienced in some other way, we will continue to see poor relative health outcomes for mothers.
Here's one vote for expanding and promoting midwife and doula care in the US.
Here's one vote for expanding and promoting midwife and doula care in the US.
8
"the U.S. is a rare country in which maternal deaths have become more common in recent years." When republicans are through with returning us to the 1950s we will see how many times the US is the rare backward country.
It is not only climate change where we will stand alone against the world. The Texas social experiment gives us bigh pregnancy related mortality. The Kansas economic experiment gives us a devastated state economy. The Trump Sesions justice department is quietly working to reduce the voter rolls by millions of Americans as the EPA rolls back much needed protections. The eviscerated state department disengages from world leadership by alienating friends and foes alike. All of this while republicans try desperately to throw 20-30 million Americans off health insurance. When are voters going to wake up?
It is not only climate change where we will stand alone against the world. The Texas social experiment gives us bigh pregnancy related mortality. The Kansas economic experiment gives us a devastated state economy. The Trump Sesions justice department is quietly working to reduce the voter rolls by millions of Americans as the EPA rolls back much needed protections. The eviscerated state department disengages from world leadership by alienating friends and foes alike. All of this while republicans try desperately to throw 20-30 million Americans off health insurance. When are voters going to wake up?
33
You could add that in terms of ethics and democratic norms we have become a laughingstock globally. And, the GOP is actively working to restrict our voting even more by controlling voter rolls, maintain and enhance gerrymandering and controlling the courts to prevent challenges.
8
Excellent points and I commend Mr Kristof for making them. However he omitted the number one cause of maternal mortality in the U.S., which is murder.
If you were to consult the CDC, or the American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, you would be forgiven for thinking that the primary cause of maternal mortality is cardiovascular disease or hemorrhage. In fact homicide and suicide account for 28% of all maternal deaths in America, which is more than the two leading obstetric causes combined.
Violent death is not included in the CDC’s list because it is not considered “pregnancy-related”—despite the fact that perinatal mood disorders affect up to 20% of women in this country, or that studies suggest women are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence in the pregnant and postpartum periods. Both of these common, “pregnancy-related” factors significantly increase a mother’s risk of premature and violent death.
These figures may help explain why the US is one of only 13 countries in which the maternal mortality rate has actually worsened over the last 25 years—a select group of nations which also includes North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
We have the most advanced and expensive health care system in the world, but while it is hijacked by the ideologies of profit, the second amendment and the religious right, mothers will continue to die.
If you were to consult the CDC, or the American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, you would be forgiven for thinking that the primary cause of maternal mortality is cardiovascular disease or hemorrhage. In fact homicide and suicide account for 28% of all maternal deaths in America, which is more than the two leading obstetric causes combined.
Violent death is not included in the CDC’s list because it is not considered “pregnancy-related”—despite the fact that perinatal mood disorders affect up to 20% of women in this country, or that studies suggest women are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence in the pregnant and postpartum periods. Both of these common, “pregnancy-related” factors significantly increase a mother’s risk of premature and violent death.
These figures may help explain why the US is one of only 13 countries in which the maternal mortality rate has actually worsened over the last 25 years—a select group of nations which also includes North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
We have the most advanced and expensive health care system in the world, but while it is hijacked by the ideologies of profit, the second amendment and the religious right, mothers will continue to die.
55
Please cite your sources. Since the CDC does not isolate out murder of pregnant women, it would be helpful to review your sources.
5
ABSOLUTELY untrue - the top three reasons are cardiovascular and obesity related.
2
Our medical system at the highest echelons may indeed by wonderful; but for too many millions, it is out of reach and therefore meaningless. Look at the thousands who came to the free Appalacian clinic desperate for medical attention and dentistry they could not afford otherwise.
Nothing the GOP has put its attention to in Congress in health care has addressed the reasons we spend double the rest of the world for poorer outcomes. (The electorate's health care took a distant back seat to tax cuts for the already wealthy.)
Nothing the GOP has put its attention to in Congress in health care has addressed the reasons we spend double the rest of the world for poorer outcomes. (The electorate's health care took a distant back seat to tax cuts for the already wealthy.)
8
Republican Christian values at work. We need to do better and vote with our brains. Texas in particular needs to take a truth pill,
32
Another area where income inequality stands out in this nation. Everything from good sex education (not religiously based, but unrealistic abstinence classes) to providing access to gynecologic care and contraception can help women make good choices about when and with whom to conceive. Good maternity care, parenting classes, early childhood medical care, and early education access for the lower economic classes would go a long way towards being sure that ALL citizens have a good start in life - and a chance to climb the economic ladder.
23
Incredibly important contributions articles like this make- I had no idea this was the case. Maternal mortalities have halved globally since 1990, but in America has increased, and this is the world's superpower? Startling. Conservatives may bang on about personal responsibility, but when Trump is slashing millions from pregnancy prevention programmes and Texas is closing prenatal clinics, the state, like the author points out, shares liability
45
It's clear from the stray comments by GOP politicians, that the lack of maternal care and birth control are really driven by punitive concerns and are, wrongly, solely the problem of women--not the men who make each and every pregnancy possible.
6
While their own health deteriorates, aging women in our culture have become invisible caretakers of our children and aging parents. American capitalism works on the backs of unpaid caretakers, while others enjoy the American dream of taking care of their careers.
58
America is among just 7 countries in the World (including North Korea and Guyana) where the MMR Maternal Mortality Rate had risen from levels seen in 1990 versus those reported in 2015.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.MMRT
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.STA.MMRT
35
In the "Deaths of Mothers per 100,000 Live Births" Graph titled "American "Exceptionalism in this article, it states : "Data for the U.S. ends in 2007..."
Why is the latest data for this critical measure/statistics almost 10 years old?
Or is such information (like deaths by Police Shootings) not considered important enough to be mandatorily supplied/collected?
Why is the latest data for this critical measure/statistics almost 10 years old?
Or is such information (like deaths by Police Shootings) not considered important enough to be mandatorily supplied/collected?
18
It is not mandatorily reported.
3
In the U.K., prevention of strep A infection in prenatal testing is standard procedure, not so in the USA. The CDC is still on the research wait and see approach. Why is prevention of the ancient killer of mother's of the scourge of child bed fever not a prenatal standard here with a simple round of antibiotics? I do not understand because my daughter almost died in one of the best hospitals in this country with strep A infection that led to the ICU and toxic shock until they finally operated to remove her uterus to save her life. I kept asking the doctor at this renown hospital that she had the classic signs of shock 24 hours after giving birth as was called a perfect birth by a very healthy mother to a very healthy child without a aesthetics, and the doctor said it was highly unlikely she had shock. Well, guess what, she had toxic shock with strep A infection which they knew she had before six weeks before she started labor. Yes, it can happen here.
43
More evidence that medical malpractice is the true cause.
2
I agree with many points in this article. I find it odd that Mr. Kristoff apparently doesn't understand there is a difference between the terms motherhood and childbirth. Is this another product of the cuts to the editing staff?
"The Republican health care plans would instead follow the path of Texas, making motherhood more dangerous across America."
"The Republican health care plans would instead follow the path of Texas, making motherhood more dangerous across America."
7
This is pro-life by definition. Turn off your mind and you will see it.
8
Hi. American living in Germany here.
Next week I'm undergoing the first procedure for an abnormal PAP screen which came up at an insurance-covered annual exam i.e. a possible precursor to cervical cancer. I'm insured under the minimum mandate for health insurance (think 'liability' for car insurance), as a low-wage earner in Germany. When I asked about coverage for this procedure and possible treatments in the future, the doctor responded "Don't worry about that, you're covered." Can you imagine my relief? One less worry, as I contemplate what a serious illness would mean for my family.
My husband pays a larger portion of his income towards health care as a high wage earner, to the same insurance company I have (one of many on offer).
For those wanting the feeling of special treatment in Germany, there are also fully private insurances available, at a premium, naturally.
In my 18 years with the German health care system, I've experienced having two children including all prenatal care, age-appropriate child and adult check-ups, child dental care including correction of cross bite, adult dental screening, all covered by the minimum mandate for health care.
Americans deserve this, too. If they can do this in Germany, and in the u.k. and in Canada, etc. etc. it can be done in the U.S.
Demand more America! Don't let politicians in the pockets of big business make you accept less than better health care for all.
Next week I'm undergoing the first procedure for an abnormal PAP screen which came up at an insurance-covered annual exam i.e. a possible precursor to cervical cancer. I'm insured under the minimum mandate for health insurance (think 'liability' for car insurance), as a low-wage earner in Germany. When I asked about coverage for this procedure and possible treatments in the future, the doctor responded "Don't worry about that, you're covered." Can you imagine my relief? One less worry, as I contemplate what a serious illness would mean for my family.
My husband pays a larger portion of his income towards health care as a high wage earner, to the same insurance company I have (one of many on offer).
For those wanting the feeling of special treatment in Germany, there are also fully private insurances available, at a premium, naturally.
In my 18 years with the German health care system, I've experienced having two children including all prenatal care, age-appropriate child and adult check-ups, child dental care including correction of cross bite, adult dental screening, all covered by the minimum mandate for health care.
Americans deserve this, too. If they can do this in Germany, and in the u.k. and in Canada, etc. etc. it can be done in the U.S.
Demand more America! Don't let politicians in the pockets of big business make you accept less than better health care for all.
143
My daughter and her husband also experienced German healthcare and sang praises about it. The only thing keeping Americans from a similar quality care system is political will on the part of politicians bought and paid for by the for profit industry that controls our medical system. I refuse to use the words "health care" to describe such a cruel, selfish, inefficient system like we are forced to deal with.
13
I refuse to use the words "health care"
Me neither, and nor the word "system."
You get what you pay for. Maybe the key to reform is first to recognize that we have an "illness" "treatment" "patchwork" of reimbursement schemes.
Me neither, and nor the word "system."
You get what you pay for. Maybe the key to reform is first to recognize that we have an "illness" "treatment" "patchwork" of reimbursement schemes.
1
Babies without mothers. What a world!
Planned Parenthood provides a necessary service to families and abortion opponents seem to forget that babies need families.
This hatred of the living on behalf of those not yet born is unchristian. Anyone who claims protecting the unborn at the expense of mothers and other living members of their families is a hypocrite. Jesus wept.
Planned Parenthood provides a necessary service to families and abortion opponents seem to forget that babies need families.
This hatred of the living on behalf of those not yet born is unchristian. Anyone who claims protecting the unborn at the expense of mothers and other living members of their families is a hypocrite. Jesus wept.
78
Our prisons are Dickensian and our "health" care is A J Cronin-esque.
Maybe we could go back to for-profit orphanages.
Maybe we could go back to for-profit orphanages.
5
Maternal death in childbirth and pregnancy is a public health issue. If the surgeon general and othet
The big problem is Texas politicians do not have the will to make pregnant women a priority. It seems to me the women's advocates could make some headway initially by focusing on the need to provide prenatal care for the fetus. Texas apparently cares more for the health of the fetus than the health of the mother. If clinics including Planned Parenthood offered Fetus Care it would require that the mother receives regular prenatal monitoring.
Fetus Care is a start. It would not address contraception but you have to start somewhere. Think about how opposing a "Healthy Fetus" would sound, especially in Texas.
The big problem is Texas politicians do not have the will to make pregnant women a priority. It seems to me the women's advocates could make some headway initially by focusing on the need to provide prenatal care for the fetus. Texas apparently cares more for the health of the fetus than the health of the mother. If clinics including Planned Parenthood offered Fetus Care it would require that the mother receives regular prenatal monitoring.
Fetus Care is a start. It would not address contraception but you have to start somewhere. Think about how opposing a "Healthy Fetus" would sound, especially in Texas.
24
Why do US data stop after 2008, while most other countries' go through 2015?
16
http://www.who.int/gho/maternal_health/countries/usa.pdf?ua=1
Good question! Here's a link to more current data, from WHO, data source US CDC. I don't think it changes the thrust of the article, so I'd like to know why it wasn't included in the graphic.
Good question! Here's a link to more current data, from WHO, data source US CDC. I don't think it changes the thrust of the article, so I'd like to know why it wasn't included in the graphic.
9
In the Republican worldview Pregnancy is the mothers problem not societies. 20 years down the line they are happy for the cannon fodder. Listen to their rhetoric
They don't want to be responsible for health care, or education but they do the military, especially when the children of America's lower classes fill it ranks freeing their to do more lucrative things.
They don't want to be responsible for health care, or education but they do the military, especially when the children of America's lower classes fill it ranks freeing their to do more lucrative things.
53
True. In listening to stray GOP comments during health care legislation, GOP Congressmen would have let their own mothers, wives and daughters go without---because pregnancy only happens to women. Talk about abdication of responsibility! (Also, notice how few GOP politicians have 8, 10, 14 children? A common occurrence before birth control was available. If you needed another instance of GOP hypocrisy.)
3
Since Mr. Kristof declines to state the obvious, I will: maternal mortality rates are higher here than elsewhere in the developed world because we are a lot fatter and more irresponsible. What are the maternal mortality rates among 300 pound polysubstance abusers in Japan? Probably immeasurable, because there are few or no moms fitting that demographic in Japan, whereas they are common in the US. Kristof misreads the data as a failure of government, kisses the false idols of socialism, and ignores the enduring sanctity of good values, proper self-care, and responsibility for one's own life.
12
One can only have proper self care and responsibility for one's own life if one has education
Planned parenthood used to do part of that. Educating girls to have adequate contraception, and giving prenatal care.
Knowing how fond Americas are of capitalism (big companies making money), I don't understand how is it that teen aged girls are not taught about IUD. The device is made in the US, it costs about 100 dollars. You have a very large population of people, so a large market, and on the long run, it is cheaper than pills. It can stay for 10 years, when the woman decides it is time to get pregnant. Maybe it is the pharma industry? Or the "prolifers" finishing the planned parenthood clinics so that there can be more young mothers with babies they can't support economically and then make sure there is no state help for that baby that they made sure would not be prevented.
Planned parenthood used to do part of that. Educating girls to have adequate contraception, and giving prenatal care.
Knowing how fond Americas are of capitalism (big companies making money), I don't understand how is it that teen aged girls are not taught about IUD. The device is made in the US, it costs about 100 dollars. You have a very large population of people, so a large market, and on the long run, it is cheaper than pills. It can stay for 10 years, when the woman decides it is time to get pregnant. Maybe it is the pharma industry? Or the "prolifers" finishing the planned parenthood clinics so that there can be more young mothers with babies they can't support economically and then make sure there is no state help for that baby that they made sure would not be prevented.
33
@Troglotia,
At least Mr. Kristof provides data in support of his point. You offer opinion with no supporting evidence whatsoever. Simply asserting that something is "obvious" does not magically make it true, or obvious. For that, you need relevant data, preferably lots of it.
If you really want to make a persuasive argument against Mr. Kristof, you need to offer some cogent facts and reasoning, like he did.
At least Mr. Kristof provides data in support of his point. You offer opinion with no supporting evidence whatsoever. Simply asserting that something is "obvious" does not magically make it true, or obvious. For that, you need relevant data, preferably lots of it.
If you really want to make a persuasive argument against Mr. Kristof, you need to offer some cogent facts and reasoning, like he did.
52
DuBoeuf --
Oh really? Such a self-righteous view of the problem. What about the other "obvious" factors -- ably pointed out in the article -- of lack of adequate maternal care, and poverty that precludes most female contraception -- especially in locales where the far right wants to gut support of PP and other free clinics? There is no relationship between maternal mortality and the lack of universal health coverage in the world's richest nation? Most of the developed world has figured out that health care is a right of citizens, just as is education. I suppose you don't like public education either?
Oh really? Such a self-righteous view of the problem. What about the other "obvious" factors -- ably pointed out in the article -- of lack of adequate maternal care, and poverty that precludes most female contraception -- especially in locales where the far right wants to gut support of PP and other free clinics? There is no relationship between maternal mortality and the lack of universal health coverage in the world's richest nation? Most of the developed world has figured out that health care is a right of citizens, just as is education. I suppose you don't like public education either?
29
There are multiple facts to be considered when looking at deaths during pregnancy or within one year of giving birth. Among the facts are these:
The elderly primigravida is defined as a woman who goes into pregnancy for the first time at the age of 35 years or older; this is a high risk pregnancy.
The very young pregnant girl is at high risk during pregnancy, as is her baby. "The most common complications for pregnant teens — especially those younger than age 15 and those who don't receive prenatal care — include a low level of iron in the blood (anemia), high blood pressure and preterm labor. Babies born to teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and have a low birth weight."
Obesity increases risk factors: "Being obese during pregnancy increases the risk of various pregnancy complications, including:
Gestational diabetes. ...
Preeclampsia. ...
Infection. ...
Overdue pregnancy. ...
Labor problems. ...
C-section. ...
Pregnancy loss.
Another risk is use of narcotics: "chronic narcotic use has increased in reproductive aged women over the past 10 years. Regular exposure to such substances during pregnancy has maternal and fetal implications."
When looking at complex problems, it's easy to say there's a simple solution....but there are no simple solutions for the risks of pregnancy.
In the USA we have many 'elderly primagravidas'; far too many young teen pregnancies; far too many obese women who are pregnant; and far too many narcotic drug users!
The elderly primigravida is defined as a woman who goes into pregnancy for the first time at the age of 35 years or older; this is a high risk pregnancy.
The very young pregnant girl is at high risk during pregnancy, as is her baby. "The most common complications for pregnant teens — especially those younger than age 15 and those who don't receive prenatal care — include a low level of iron in the blood (anemia), high blood pressure and preterm labor. Babies born to teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and have a low birth weight."
Obesity increases risk factors: "Being obese during pregnancy increases the risk of various pregnancy complications, including:
Gestational diabetes. ...
Preeclampsia. ...
Infection. ...
Overdue pregnancy. ...
Labor problems. ...
C-section. ...
Pregnancy loss.
Another risk is use of narcotics: "chronic narcotic use has increased in reproductive aged women over the past 10 years. Regular exposure to such substances during pregnancy has maternal and fetal implications."
When looking at complex problems, it's easy to say there's a simple solution....but there are no simple solutions for the risks of pregnancy.
In the USA we have many 'elderly primagravidas'; far too many young teen pregnancies; far too many obese women who are pregnant; and far too many narcotic drug users!
14
You think that's not the case in the U.K.? Wrong. The difference is the health systems.
62
Yes, there are indeed multiple facts and causes for deaths while pregnant. However, I am willing to wager you that other countries throughout the developed world face these same challenges - and yet - our maternal death rate is much higher than theirs. We need to increase and improve both contraceptive care and pre-natal services in America - not decrease such as attempted the Republican plans.
64
Kirsty Mills Yes, the difference is health systems. UHC is the 'elective choice' of the majority of free-world countries. Less expensive, improved outcome, everyone has access.
14
There are no obstetricians or gynecologists in the county I live in. There is only one hospital in the county and they do not deliver babies. There are no women's health clinics here or in any of the surrounding counties. It's a poor county and many people aren't getting pre-natal care because they don't have the means to get to another town in another county to see a doctor.
And Republicans want to shut down even more clinics? Lack of nearby health care is a terrible problem. They shouldn't make it worse.
And Republicans want to shut down even more clinics? Lack of nearby health care is a terrible problem. They shouldn't make it worse.
289
This is insane. How far do women in your county have to travel for care or to give birth?
I do wonder, too, why there isn't more women-led resistance in the southern states that have these sorts of conditions. Surely it isn't only liberals who find this level of maternal care unacceptable?
I do wonder, too, why there isn't more women-led resistance in the southern states that have these sorts of conditions. Surely it isn't only liberals who find this level of maternal care unacceptable?
4
I lived in NYC before coming to Austria where I married and had two children. I'm still an American citizen after 29 years. I had my girls at 38 and 40 years old. Since this country has healthcare for all and my age made my pregnancy a risk factor, I was allowed to leave my job, in both cases, and the government PAID almost my full salary during those 9 months before my birth. I had wonderful prenatal care and of course all expenses were paid for my care--before and after. Both children had a mother/child pass where they were taken every 6 weeks to check their growing selves for the first 3 years of life. I stayed at home with them for two years-each child, and this was also paid for since the Austrian government helps parents greatly to establish and support the life of the family and believes that the first two years is vitally important for both mother and child. This was a blessing for my family and especially a gift to me as mother because that time was the best time all EVER--simply a joy and wonder! Children here are supported with money from the government until they are 24. Not only that--all the years I stayed at home (I worked for two years before I had them) I have received full benefits of healthcare for MYSELF -apart from my husband--and a small pension for all the years I raised my kids! They feel that its the most important job you will ever do so they reward you with your own coverage! All this as an American!
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE! And so am I.
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE! And so am I.
272
WOW! Thanks for sharing that story. I hope you and your family continue to be well and happy.
27
Thank you for sharing that. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make "socialism" stop being a dirty word in America.
There is a lot that is wrong with maternity care in the US. I had two children in America, with excellent insurance to pay for our care. The first OB I saw told me flat out that she couldn't take me on unless I was willing to schedule a C-section!! Shouldn't a doctor encourage a woman to have as natural a birth as possible? I ended up having an unnecessary C-section with the next Dr., because she was trigger-happy. She sent me to the hospital to be induced because I was 1cm dilated at 40.5 weeks instead of sending me home to await labor. I later found out that the C-section rate at that hospital is 25%, whereas only about 10% of all births really need to be C-sections. This is pretty common all over the U.S. For my second one, it was tricky to find a care provider who would let me attempt a normal delivery. They wouldn't even look at why I had my first C-section. Or, the physician was willing, but the hospital would not let them have a patient attempting VBAC. Overall, I had to fight the system to attempt natural, normal births, when that should be everybody's goal. I hear that in UK, Canada, there is a much more holistic approach to maternity care, which benefits the mother and child as well as the system in terms of avoided surgery costs (immediate and future).
There is a lot that is wrong with maternity care in the US. I had two children in America, with excellent insurance to pay for our care. The first OB I saw told me flat out that she couldn't take me on unless I was willing to schedule a C-section!! Shouldn't a doctor encourage a woman to have as natural a birth as possible? I ended up having an unnecessary C-section with the next Dr., because she was trigger-happy. She sent me to the hospital to be induced because I was 1cm dilated at 40.5 weeks instead of sending me home to await labor. I later found out that the C-section rate at that hospital is 25%, whereas only about 10% of all births really need to be C-sections. This is pretty common all over the U.S. For my second one, it was tricky to find a care provider who would let me attempt a normal delivery. They wouldn't even look at why I had my first C-section. Or, the physician was willing, but the hospital would not let them have a patient attempting VBAC. Overall, I had to fight the system to attempt natural, normal births, when that should be everybody's goal. I hear that in UK, Canada, there is a much more holistic approach to maternity care, which benefits the mother and child as well as the system in terms of avoided surgery costs (immediate and future).
17
We support instead the oil companies and the military which has now become an economic rather than military engine.
(And we support Congress where GOP Senators try to pass a bill they themselves call a FRAUD and vote for it only on condition it will NOT become law. This is legislating?)
(And we support Congress where GOP Senators try to pass a bill they themselves call a FRAUD and vote for it only on condition it will NOT become law. This is legislating?)
3
"If Americans Love Moms, Why Do We Let Them Die?"
Wrong premise (the "if"clause):
Neither America nor any other country "loves Moms".
Families, in America and in other countries, love their own Moms.
And cultures in most countries value families who love -- and tale care of -- their own Moms -- and their own Moms' own children.
Neither Americans -- nor people in other countries -- love other peoples' Moms -- at least not to the same extent that they love their own Moms.
Wrong premise (the "if"clause):
Neither America nor any other country "loves Moms".
Families, in America and in other countries, love their own Moms.
And cultures in most countries value families who love -- and tale care of -- their own Moms -- and their own Moms' own children.
Neither Americans -- nor people in other countries -- love other peoples' Moms -- at least not to the same extent that they love their own Moms.
6
Excellent points!
1
You obviously don't understand the different meaning of the words Americans and America.
Americans are living and breathing people, whereas America is a country on the world map.
Americans are living and breathing people, whereas America is a country on the world map.
1
But only in the US can legislators speak of pregnancy as something that is completely divorced from themselves; voting against legislation that protects their own mothers, wives, and children.
3
I'm glad that Mr. Kristof is addressing our third world problems right here at home. With our medical technology and being the wealthiest country ever on the face of the earth, no woman in the U.S. should ever have avoidable complications with child birth. But then again there are people who die daily here due to lack of dental care and other easily preventable health problems.
36
Pro-life advocates are exactly opposite- they are strictly PRO- BIRTH, not pro-life. After the birth. they couldn't care less what happens to the babies. More old white men making laws that don't affect them. Male dominance rules in this country.
137
Yes, sadly for most "pro-life" people, life begins at conception and ends at birth.
5
Understand women voted these clowns into office. Males are not out there fighting and killing females to take over government. Most females also do not demand that their elected representative address their issues.
The most important quality in an elected official is a superior ability to listen to ALL the people in their district/state. Representatives are supposed to speak for their constituents, not do whatever they feel like doing. For this to work, constituents must talk to their reps frequently.
The most important quality in an elected official is a superior ability to listen to ALL the people in their district/state. Representatives are supposed to speak for their constituents, not do whatever they feel like doing. For this to work, constituents must talk to their reps frequently.
1
What a shame that the US is so far behind in women's health. Pregnancy is meant to be a start to a wanted and loved child who will be cared for by loving parents.
Pregnancy is not meant to be an unwanted condition resulting in an unwanted and often neglected child as well as a threat to the well being and sometimes the life of a woman.
We have the knowledge to make pregnancy and childbirth a wonderful, wanted experience. Let's use the knowledge.
Pregnancy is not meant to be an unwanted condition resulting in an unwanted and often neglected child as well as a threat to the well being and sometimes the life of a woman.
We have the knowledge to make pregnancy and childbirth a wonderful, wanted experience. Let's use the knowledge.
32
Why are the loudest anti-abortion voices also anti-women's healthcare? I don't understand why pro-life proponents aren't the leading advocates of prenatal care for all women--especially single moms, whom they encourage to keep the baby. They should advocate for offering the best maternity care and neonatal care in the world. This failing makes me feel they are simply anti-women, or threatened by women, perhaps men who are worried about being held responsible for babies they fathered. Seems the most pro-life places are the most anti-maternity care, like Texas.
118
Clearly, their view is that women are simply vessels for carrying children and not human beings with the same status as males. The little woman should know her place, after all, and stay out of matters that don't concern her, such as her own health (how selfish of her!) as opposed to her job of carrying men's offspring.
2
Georgia, like Texas, likes to control women's bodies and take away their healthcare options. It ranks 49th in the country for maternal deaths.
Nothing will change the minds of the extremists who took over the Republican Party which used to be normal, and like the Democratic Party, supported a woman's right to choose and recognized that millions of women are helped each year through Planned Parenthood clinics.
The same Republican congressmen who are these days ranting about how no one should be forced to get insurance and that people should choose their own doctors are the ones who tell women they may not buy insurance even with their own money if that insurance includes coverage for abortion, and they tell women they cannot choose their doctors if they are with Planned Parenthood and they must defer to their employers about whether or not contraceptives are included in their insurance (which they pay for themselves).
It has become an ugly world in right wing America and even worse in Trumpistan. The new Sharia laws are being enacted by white men who only care about tax cuts for the wealthy and keeping everyone else in subjection legally.
GOP men have weaponized healthcare against women.
Nothing will change the minds of the extremists who took over the Republican Party which used to be normal, and like the Democratic Party, supported a woman's right to choose and recognized that millions of women are helped each year through Planned Parenthood clinics.
The same Republican congressmen who are these days ranting about how no one should be forced to get insurance and that people should choose their own doctors are the ones who tell women they may not buy insurance even with their own money if that insurance includes coverage for abortion, and they tell women they cannot choose their doctors if they are with Planned Parenthood and they must defer to their employers about whether or not contraceptives are included in their insurance (which they pay for themselves).
It has become an ugly world in right wing America and even worse in Trumpistan. The new Sharia laws are being enacted by white men who only care about tax cuts for the wealthy and keeping everyone else in subjection legally.
GOP men have weaponized healthcare against women.
84
No, we don't love mothers. We love traditional gender roles and enforcing them. Lauding motherhood--in limited circumstances and in a limited manner--is a particular favorite way of enforcing those gender roles.
Examine the following contradictions and it will be clear: we claim that motherhood is a woman's highest calling but if a woman gets pregnant out of wedlock she's reviled (breach of gender norm: having child out of wedlock). We encourage women to have babies even if they don't feel ready but don't encourage paid maternity leave, because a woman staying home with her baby is the traditional gender role. We don't want women having babies they're unprepared to have, but won't support access to contraception or sex Ed. Why? Not because we really care about reaching the ideal outcome-every baby a wanted baby-but because we are attempting to enforce traditional patriarchal gender roles, i.e., women only having sex in marriage.
Enforcement of patriarchal gender roles for women is the only consistent motivator for these seemingly contradictory policy positions. Motherhood is not respected in any meaningful sense, it is fetishized. It's fetishized because women who cannot control their reproduction and who are economically disenfranchised are easier to control and women who aren't paying attention think they're being valued. It's a trap.
Examine the following contradictions and it will be clear: we claim that motherhood is a woman's highest calling but if a woman gets pregnant out of wedlock she's reviled (breach of gender norm: having child out of wedlock). We encourage women to have babies even if they don't feel ready but don't encourage paid maternity leave, because a woman staying home with her baby is the traditional gender role. We don't want women having babies they're unprepared to have, but won't support access to contraception or sex Ed. Why? Not because we really care about reaching the ideal outcome-every baby a wanted baby-but because we are attempting to enforce traditional patriarchal gender roles, i.e., women only having sex in marriage.
Enforcement of patriarchal gender roles for women is the only consistent motivator for these seemingly contradictory policy positions. Motherhood is not respected in any meaningful sense, it is fetishized. It's fetishized because women who cannot control their reproduction and who are economically disenfranchised are easier to control and women who aren't paying attention think they're being valued. It's a trap.
157
Thank you, Mr Kristoff, for taking the time and expending the effort as well as dedicating so much of your life to the pursuit of our understanding the reality other human beings face.
A Gallup Poll from 2013 found that while 15% of the non-religious people asked responded as pro-life, over 50% of those who identified as Catholics, Protestants, Southerners, seniors, and nonwhites reported the same. This represents a large group but nonetheless a minority of our citizenry who appear to have no qualms imposing personally held religious views on others.
This may be of no interest to any who consider the sanctity of life begins at conception which by any reasonable consideration is personal. Before we are creatures of any god we are all human beings who first and foremost should be respected as such by our fellow citizens.
I do not believe in or accept the existence of any supernatural being of any sort and while this view is personally unshakeable there is not nor has there ever been the desire to impose this thought on anyone. In a similar fashion, I do not want anyone to impose their will or thought on me.
I do not like the idea of abortion and am personally opposed to its use, but recognize it will never be my decision to make. The decision to abort an as yet viable or severely damaged fetus is one which only the woman involved can, under normal circumstance, make and should be respected.
This, in my opinion, is pro-life.
A Gallup Poll from 2013 found that while 15% of the non-religious people asked responded as pro-life, over 50% of those who identified as Catholics, Protestants, Southerners, seniors, and nonwhites reported the same. This represents a large group but nonetheless a minority of our citizenry who appear to have no qualms imposing personally held religious views on others.
This may be of no interest to any who consider the sanctity of life begins at conception which by any reasonable consideration is personal. Before we are creatures of any god we are all human beings who first and foremost should be respected as such by our fellow citizens.
I do not believe in or accept the existence of any supernatural being of any sort and while this view is personally unshakeable there is not nor has there ever been the desire to impose this thought on anyone. In a similar fashion, I do not want anyone to impose their will or thought on me.
I do not like the idea of abortion and am personally opposed to its use, but recognize it will never be my decision to make. The decision to abort an as yet viable or severely damaged fetus is one which only the woman involved can, under normal circumstance, make and should be respected.
This, in my opinion, is pro-life.
27
Mr. Kristof left out some important facts:
The CDC tracks deaths during pregnancy and for 1 year after delivery:
"Of the 5,259 deaths within a year of pregnancy completion that occurred during 2011–2013 and were reported to CDC, 2,009 were found to be pregnancy-related. The pregnancy-related mortality ratios were 17.8, 15.9, and 17.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Considerable racial disparities in pregnancy-related mortality exist. During 2011–2013, the pregnancy-related mortality ratios were–
12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births for white women.
43.5 deaths per 100,000 live births for black women.
14.4 deaths per 100,000 live births for women of other races.
The causes of death were:
Cardiovascular diseases, 15.5%.
Non-cardiovascular diseases, 14.5%.
Infection or sepsis, 12.7%.
Hemorrhage, 11.4%.
Cardiomyopathy, 11.0%.
Thrombotic pulmonary embolism, 9.2%.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, 7.4%.
Cerebrovascular accidents, 6.6%. (a/k/a stroke)
Amniotic fluid embolism, 5.5%.
Anesthesia complications, 0.2%.
Unknown, 6.1%
The CDC tracks deaths during pregnancy and for 1 year after delivery:
"Of the 5,259 deaths within a year of pregnancy completion that occurred during 2011–2013 and were reported to CDC, 2,009 were found to be pregnancy-related. The pregnancy-related mortality ratios were 17.8, 15.9, and 17.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Considerable racial disparities in pregnancy-related mortality exist. During 2011–2013, the pregnancy-related mortality ratios were–
12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births for white women.
43.5 deaths per 100,000 live births for black women.
14.4 deaths per 100,000 live births for women of other races.
The causes of death were:
Cardiovascular diseases, 15.5%.
Non-cardiovascular diseases, 14.5%.
Infection or sepsis, 12.7%.
Hemorrhage, 11.4%.
Cardiomyopathy, 11.0%.
Thrombotic pulmonary embolism, 9.2%.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, 7.4%.
Cerebrovascular accidents, 6.6%. (a/k/a stroke)
Amniotic fluid embolism, 5.5%.
Anesthesia complications, 0.2%.
Unknown, 6.1%
22
The government claims it can't afford, or just won't pay for contraception or abortions. But it's amazing how much money the military can afford to spend on Viagra. Also, the healthcare bill they tried to replace ACA with contained provisions to not cover maternity care, or abortions, but of course Viagra would still be covered. So we must pay for and facilitate a man's right and ability to engage in sexual activity at all costs, but protection for the women they have sex with and any children produced from these acts are on the women.
Sadly, we are creating a world in which only the very poor who are covered by Medicaid or the very well off can afford to have children. Most poor women I know dont want more children then they can afford, but many are also beholden to the men in their lives for what little money they bring into the household. Contraception is the key to our survival as a species, but it's also a large component of women's independence from a man. Which is why 13 old men have spent so much time and energy to withhold access from so many women.
Sadly, we are creating a world in which only the very poor who are covered by Medicaid or the very well off can afford to have children. Most poor women I know dont want more children then they can afford, but many are also beholden to the men in their lives for what little money they bring into the household. Contraception is the key to our survival as a species, but it's also a large component of women's independence from a man. Which is why 13 old men have spent so much time and energy to withhold access from so many women.
79
Another argument for why California should exit the US and become an independent nation.
21
Apologies if you read this comment last week but it is worth repeating ...
Last month I dropped into the Scottish Parliament just to see it in action. That afternoon it was a government Minister reporting on the findings of a committee formed because of an increase in deaths of women in Ayrshire during child birth. The government spent time monitoring, researching and reporting the problem and outlined a series of steps to address the possible causes. These were then discussed, questioned, debated.
There is a government that concerns itself with the Welfare of the People.
Last month I dropped into the Scottish Parliament just to see it in action. That afternoon it was a government Minister reporting on the findings of a committee formed because of an increase in deaths of women in Ayrshire during child birth. The government spent time monitoring, researching and reporting the problem and outlined a series of steps to address the possible causes. These were then discussed, questioned, debated.
There is a government that concerns itself with the Welfare of the People.
113
We love THE IDEA of motherhood and moms. But sadly, it's women we hate, especially those who dare to think for themselves and make choices. Not to mention that respect and affection vary with skin tone, of course.
64
What's the racial breakdown? If it's mostly women of color dying, that explains why nothing gets done about it. Even if that isn't the case, it's probably the perception. So nothing gets done about it.
Ask the gathering of white male elders who tried to shape health care for millions, including much of the population that is at the highest risk of dying, how much of their deliberation was focused on reducing maternal mortality while defunding planned parenthood.
Ask the gathering of white male elders who tried to shape health care for millions, including much of the population that is at the highest risk of dying, how much of their deliberation was focused on reducing maternal mortality while defunding planned parenthood.
54
There are women dying, but Mr. Kristof is too prissy and PC to talk about who is dying and why.
It is overwhelmingly very obese black women on welfare -- unmarried (the example he gave of a married woman is a rare exception) -- and who avoid doctors and prenatal care EVEN WHEN FREE under Medicaid.
They drink, smoke, use drugs and eat atrocious junk food, and don't follow doctor's orders (if they go at all) --- they have high blood pressure, but refuse to take BP meds, which cost a whopping $1.50 or so a month (and are FREE anyways on Medicaid!). They don't take prenatal vitamins. Some are junkies who shoot up heroin while pregnant. MANY, many smoke pot while pregnant. Most drink while pregnant. A lot of them do all of these.
Very obese pregnant women have high risks anyways -- then add drugs, cigarettes, drinking -- then don't follow doctors orders -- then don't take your blood pressure pills -- don't treat your diabetes (gestational or otherwise) -- then you are at third trimester and a walking disaster, and big surprise when you have a troubled pregnancy, lose your baby or die yourself.
The help that is available isn't helping -- would MORE help actually help? You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
It is overwhelmingly very obese black women on welfare -- unmarried (the example he gave of a married woman is a rare exception) -- and who avoid doctors and prenatal care EVEN WHEN FREE under Medicaid.
They drink, smoke, use drugs and eat atrocious junk food, and don't follow doctor's orders (if they go at all) --- they have high blood pressure, but refuse to take BP meds, which cost a whopping $1.50 or so a month (and are FREE anyways on Medicaid!). They don't take prenatal vitamins. Some are junkies who shoot up heroin while pregnant. MANY, many smoke pot while pregnant. Most drink while pregnant. A lot of them do all of these.
Very obese pregnant women have high risks anyways -- then add drugs, cigarettes, drinking -- then don't follow doctors orders -- then don't take your blood pressure pills -- don't treat your diabetes (gestational or otherwise) -- then you are at third trimester and a walking disaster, and big surprise when you have a troubled pregnancy, lose your baby or die yourself.
The help that is available isn't helping -- would MORE help actually help? You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
Does America really let moms die?
Perhaps not. Life expectancy is 81.2 years for American women, 76.4 years for American men.
What is true that the poor have a much lower life expectancy.
In any case, the high rates of death during pregnancy and childbirth beg the question: Why do we have so many births in the US?
Population in the US grew by 82 million during the period 1980-2010, an increase of 36%. Meanwhile the number of positions in medical school grew at about half that rate. The result is a lower percentage of doctors in the population, higher health care costs, and worse outcomes for mothers giving birth.
Why not focus on the long run solution. Cut population growth in the US.
That would require encouraging smaller family size. We can do that by not glorifying large families with television programs like "19 and counting."
We can also provide free access to birth control.
And we can stop illegal immigration. Indeed, fertility in the US has dropped so immigration is the primary mechanism for population increase.
Yes, some of these policies are controversial. But if NY Times readers really have open minds, they should welcome the opportunity to have a free and open discussion on how to live within the limits to growth imposed by our finite planet.
Once we get population growth under control, living standards can once again rise and health outcomes for pregnant mothers will improve.
Perhaps not. Life expectancy is 81.2 years for American women, 76.4 years for American men.
What is true that the poor have a much lower life expectancy.
In any case, the high rates of death during pregnancy and childbirth beg the question: Why do we have so many births in the US?
Population in the US grew by 82 million during the period 1980-2010, an increase of 36%. Meanwhile the number of positions in medical school grew at about half that rate. The result is a lower percentage of doctors in the population, higher health care costs, and worse outcomes for mothers giving birth.
Why not focus on the long run solution. Cut population growth in the US.
That would require encouraging smaller family size. We can do that by not glorifying large families with television programs like "19 and counting."
We can also provide free access to birth control.
And we can stop illegal immigration. Indeed, fertility in the US has dropped so immigration is the primary mechanism for population increase.
Yes, some of these policies are controversial. But if NY Times readers really have open minds, they should welcome the opportunity to have a free and open discussion on how to live within the limits to growth imposed by our finite planet.
Once we get population growth under control, living standards can once again rise and health outcomes for pregnant mothers will improve.
26
Your comment is completely tangential. Whatever merits your arguments may or may not have, this discussion is not about population growth but provision of healthcare for women.
70
That was a very good comment. Population growth has become toxic. solving the problem has become very difficult.
8
Take a look at the actual numbers; population growth is decreasing in the U.S., not rising. Perhaps you are conflating what appears to be a mass movement of people into the U.S. with population growth? That's called immigration, and that's a different, although connected, subject. Indeed, there are more people alive in the U.S. right now than there have been ever before, but not all of them were born here. Nonetheless, birth rates are not rising. Or perhaps you are thinking of areas of the world where population control has been an actual, pressing issue, such as India? Well, population rates are decreasing there, as well. In other words, the story is not about rising population rates; it's about lack of access to health care for marginalized populations, of which you can now include "almost all women in America," it seems.
3
"Here in Texas, women die from pregnancy at a rate almost unrivaled in the industrialized world. A woman in Texas is about 10 times as likely to die from pregnancy as one in Spain or Sweden, and by all accounts, the health care plans proposed so far by Republicans would make maternal mortality even worse in Texas and across America."
These figures are mind-bending. And so unnecessary. The war on contraception and pregnancy I'm sure stems more from a desire to punish poor women who rely on free health clinics and Medicaid than it is to outlaw sex.
Because plenty of politicians and clergy are having sex themselves, and you can be sure that if their wives or girlfriends need family planning help, they get it.
It's a double standard and it targets the poor. And it's a travesty in a nation that deems itself to be enlightened and advanced, which it's clearly not.
These figures are mind-bending. And so unnecessary. The war on contraception and pregnancy I'm sure stems more from a desire to punish poor women who rely on free health clinics and Medicaid than it is to outlaw sex.
Because plenty of politicians and clergy are having sex themselves, and you can be sure that if their wives or girlfriends need family planning help, they get it.
It's a double standard and it targets the poor. And it's a travesty in a nation that deems itself to be enlightened and advanced, which it's clearly not.
416
Said perfectly! Thank you.
2
I am a former Texan who currently lives in New York. I had my first child 6 months ago and was introduced to the world of maternity care, and the lack thereof in other states. I miss my family in Texas, but I won't be returning any time soon. I plan to have all my children in New York, where I have options and am protected by New York state. I feel safer here. I worry for the safety of my friends who are having babies in Texas.
192
@Rachel
Congratulations ~ A newborn babe
brings light to the house
warmth to the hearth
and joy to the soul
for wealth is family
family is wealth. ( Irish blessing )
It's a dichotomy to be sure. We want everyone to be safe, cared for and healthy. At the same time, we want enough voters to overturn such toxic policies. ( like in Texas )
Work to do, work to do .
Congratulations ~ A newborn babe
brings light to the house
warmth to the hearth
and joy to the soul
for wealth is family
family is wealth. ( Irish blessing )
It's a dichotomy to be sure. We want everyone to be safe, cared for and healthy. At the same time, we want enough voters to overturn such toxic policies. ( like in Texas )
Work to do, work to do .
40
Please, avoid having more than 2 children. The planet cannot support too many people. I had only one.
6
A Christian nation does not use birth control or permit abortions. God said to Eve when the apple was taken that childbirth shall be painful (and apparently fatal). Such is life. Remember, be fruitful and multiply.
Europe is moving away from Christian doctrine and will suffer . . . eventually.
Europe is moving away from Christian doctrine and will suffer . . . eventually.
6
Hello James- The United States is not a Christian nation. Just thought I would point that out. Best wishes- Evan
165
In Latin America, many countries banned both birth control and abortions. The result? Abortion rates 10-20 times that of Europe where both birth control and abortions are largely legal. (Of course the abortions were illegal, but they killed never the less). The situation greatly improved when contraception became widely available in those countries.
53
Surely "James Thurber" is being ironical.
29
An utterly amazing fact, not mentioned in this article, is the fight put up by a lot of evangelical "christians" to prevent sex education, distribution of condoms, and of course the infamous Hobby Lobby refusal to include contraception in their insurance plan - presumably because God doesn't believe in it! And the Supreme Court let them get away with it! Religion must be kept out of policy and politics, but has been steadily encroaching for several decades now, much to our detriment.
423
Sex education is taught in every school in the nation, with the exception that private schools can choose what to teach. Parents are free to teach sex education.
What you and others don't recognize is that sex education has little to do with becoming pregnant. The mayor of the largest city in my state married his girlfriend after she became pregnant. Both are intelligent people; both are college graduates, with post-grad law degrees.
Do you really believe people don't know that sex causes pregnancy??
What you and others don't recognize is that sex education has little to do with becoming pregnant. The mayor of the largest city in my state married his girlfriend after she became pregnant. Both are intelligent people; both are college graduates, with post-grad law degrees.
Do you really believe people don't know that sex causes pregnancy??
3
The Hobby Lobby thing makes me steam. Apparently, "god" is just fine with abortion and birth control in China where Hobby Lobby manufactures all of its goods. The hypocrisy that goes unchallenged wit these people is astounding.
4
Azalea: are you kidding? You cannot possible compare the consequences for a mayor a large city and his GF with their taxpayer healthcare with what happens to the life of a kid without actual information in America. For that kid it is no game- it is a major fork in the road- forever.
Yes, sex ed prevents teen pregnancy. In Colorado there was a successful program that provided information, contraception and kids who would have been beached in small town Colorado got their education instead of raising kids in no-job backwaters. It was a huge success and the GOP voted to end it.
Maybe the correlation to be made is ignorance and the GOP right now.
Yes, sex ed prevents teen pregnancy. In Colorado there was a successful program that provided information, contraception and kids who would have been beached in small town Colorado got their education instead of raising kids in no-job backwaters. It was a huge success and the GOP voted to end it.
Maybe the correlation to be made is ignorance and the GOP right now.
4
MItch McConnell chose to appoint 13 men to start of the GOP process with this failed attempt to overturn Obamacare.
The best way to fix the ACA is to implement a public option to promote lower prices and competition. But that will never happen under Trump's incompetence and the GOP as it is presently constituted.
Democrats need to get tougher and prepare to have possibly the toughest political fight ahead for a referendum on 'Trumpism' to gain seats next year in Congress and begin to unravel this worst of all time presidency.
The best way to fix the ACA is to implement a public option to promote lower prices and competition. But that will never happen under Trump's incompetence and the GOP as it is presently constituted.
Democrats need to get tougher and prepare to have possibly the toughest political fight ahead for a referendum on 'Trumpism' to gain seats next year in Congress and begin to unravel this worst of all time presidency.
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How do these numbers break down racially? If one were to remove African Americans, Mexicans, etc. from the equation, how would the US stack up against European countries? is the death rate during pregnancy as high for the poor as it the middle class and wealthy? Without addressing these issues, it is difficult if not impossible to understand the problem.
12
This is a very old American excuse. The colonies were infested with worthless indentured servants, Germans, convicts, and just plain criminals. Slaves, of course, didn't even count. Do I need to mention Irish and assorted east and southern Europeans?
19
Wolfran: " African Americans and Mexicans, etc." are real people, so I would think we have to include them along with "white and wealthy." European countries have thousands of immigrants who are poor, so I would assume there is healthcare for them also.
2
I believe all of those mothers are also humans who die in child birth why would we take them out. Oh....African Americans aren't Americans? What a bunch of horsefeathers, vicious horsefeathers to be sure.
5
Evangelical "Christian" political power is the reason for the shocking maternal mortality rate and the infant mortality rate in Amerika.
They demonize Planned Parenthood, block sex education and contraceptives for teens, allow good "Christian" employers to opt out of contraceptive coverage in their health plans (thanks to 5 men on SCOTUS via Hobby Lobby) and vote for right wing politicians at the state level who block Medicaid expansion under the ACA (with its prenatal care coverage) solely for the cynical political reason that Obama got it passed.
Jesus doesn't know these folks.
They demonize Planned Parenthood, block sex education and contraceptives for teens, allow good "Christian" employers to opt out of contraceptive coverage in their health plans (thanks to 5 men on SCOTUS via Hobby Lobby) and vote for right wing politicians at the state level who block Medicaid expansion under the ACA (with its prenatal care coverage) solely for the cynical political reason that Obama got it passed.
Jesus doesn't know these folks.
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I would add that, yes, Jesus doesn't know know these folks, nor do they know Jesus.
4
You are correct in all you say and remember Betsy DeVos is an evangelical, the rabid right wing type who knows nothing about education, owns collection agencies that goes after student debt, and wants vouchers and charter schools where she envisions teaching her version of religion in all schools that will no longer be public under this adminstrations appointees who are a confederacy of crooks and dunces;she is against the separation of church and government, and said, are you ready for this, they took separation of church and state TOO FAR. So the Founding Fathers who knew the horrors of the European theocratic states wanted to make sure their new country would not be terrorized by that situation;but DeVos apparently doesn't know U.S. History or World History to make such an outrageous and absurd statement.
4
Make that 5 Roman Catholic men.
2
Liberals oppose war; conservatives oppose healthcare.
234
LBJ started a dandy war in Vietnam and he was a Liberal.
3
Liberals oppose war? History says you are incorrect:
WW I President Wilson Democrat
WWII President Roosevelt Democrat
Korean War President Truman Democrat
Vietnam War President Kennedy Democrat (sending advisers)
Vietnam War President Johnson Democrat (escalated)
Iraq War President Bush Republican
Afghan War President Obama Democrat
There are a few other short-term wars, about equally divided between D and R.
Try learning a little history. It's good to know.
WW I President Wilson Democrat
WWII President Roosevelt Democrat
Korean War President Truman Democrat
Vietnam War President Kennedy Democrat (sending advisers)
Vietnam War President Johnson Democrat (escalated)
Iraq War President Bush Republican
Afghan War President Obama Democrat
There are a few other short-term wars, about equally divided between D and R.
Try learning a little history. It's good to know.
2
And then the conservatives starve the Veterans Administration did during the Bush years --and the Wall Street Journal called guys like me as riding on the gravy train.
I stop at the local convenience store regularly, and most days I see young women, sometimes pregnant, and often with children clinging nearby, and the mother is buying cigarettes. Am I to believe that Individual responsibility has nothing to do with this maternal death problem? Or that government-paid prenatal counseling will solve it?
8
In what way does this account for the relative deaths in US v Europe? Are European women more inherently responsible? Is European [government-paid] pre-natal counselling effective in changing behaviour? Or are European health care services better at coping with the consequences of lack of maternal responsibility?
And here is another question: are the citizens of the United States prepared to tolerate "socialised medicine" if that saves the lives of mothers and babies? Should health care policy be determined by the lives of babies or the philosophy of free-market think tanks?
And here is another question: are the citizens of the United States prepared to tolerate "socialised medicine" if that saves the lives of mothers and babies? Should health care policy be determined by the lives of babies or the philosophy of free-market think tanks?
9
No and yes. Countries like France and Canada have shown that government-supplied pre-natal care and education can make a big difference.
14
Bob,
I do not understand your comment. You seem to be implying that if a mother is a cigarette smoker, she does not deserve to have reproductive healthcare. Perhaps I misunderstood your intent. If so, I apologise.
I personally believe healthcare, including comprehensive reproductive care, is a human right.
I do not understand your comment. You seem to be implying that if a mother is a cigarette smoker, she does not deserve to have reproductive healthcare. Perhaps I misunderstood your intent. If so, I apologise.
I personally believe healthcare, including comprehensive reproductive care, is a human right.
22
This article makes me proud to be a Californian. It's a good example of the benefits of state, county, and municipal government policies that are progressive, forward-thinking, holistic, and empathetic. I wish that residents of other states didn't have to suffer at the hands of conservative, unenlightened, unwise, mostly older white male ideologues who rule their state and local governments. There are reasons why California is prosperous. Our relatively higher taxes and tighter regulatory environment provide real benefits to residents that myopic anti-tax and anti-government crusaders simply can't see because they are blinded by ideology. It's not just our nice weather and interesting geography that we Californians benefit from.
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What birth control methods are prescribed to California's welfare recipients?
1
Health care for a pregnant woman starts when that woman was in the womb of her mother and there was prenatal ( and other ) care.
It is the ongoing cycle of life.
That health care continues on as that little baby girl grows into adolescence and puberty. It continues on into womanhood and pregnancy. It includes regular checkups and education on reproductive rights\responsibilities along the way.
It is an all of the above strategy, that requires continuous support and funding for that medical care\education. Cut anything along the way in that cycle and you risk higher mortality rates for the mothers and the children.
It is just common ( cents )
It is the ongoing cycle of life.
That health care continues on as that little baby girl grows into adolescence and puberty. It continues on into womanhood and pregnancy. It includes regular checkups and education on reproductive rights\responsibilities along the way.
It is an all of the above strategy, that requires continuous support and funding for that medical care\education. Cut anything along the way in that cycle and you risk higher mortality rates for the mothers and the children.
It is just common ( cents )
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Can I put in a plug for The Nurse Family Partnership here?
The NYT article below describes how they've been trying to help mothers and children for years:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/health/program-that-helps-new-mothers...
We need philanthropists and government to fund outreach that help at-risk mothers and children.
The NYT article below describes how they've been trying to help mothers and children for years:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/health/program-that-helps-new-mothers...
We need philanthropists and government to fund outreach that help at-risk mothers and children.
50
Hello Gates Foundation. And others.
1
I knew about this but did not know it was so bad. As a dual national (Cdn and US born in US) I am glad I had my two pregnancies in Canada. Both had great outcomes but I spent the last three months of my second pregnancy in hospital. I was told not to have any more children (diabetes and and eventually toxemia) and received help with the latter. All on a single payer system. We paid for the system with higher taxes but well worth it. Where will the next generation come from if we do not provide assistance.
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Part of the problem is societal. In Great Britain, every woman who even thinks she may be pregnant will seek medical care from the local NHS provider. It's just a given. But here, due to lack of medical coverage and education about the benefits of early pre-natal care, there is a cavernous void. This is inexcusable and certainly abstinence only education doesn't help. Healthcare is a basic human right and should be extended to everyone in the US.
378
If you're Catholic, look in your Catechism,health care is a right
I lived out in New Mexico 20 years ago and had a neighbor who was pregnant. This woman was born in New Mexico and had a long family history there. We talked about the upcoming birth and she stated she'd just go to the hospital when her labor started. She had never seen a physician once during her pregnancy because "well, I'm not sick - I'm pregnant. Why would I go see a doctor?" I explained the importance of pre-natal care and she laughed at me. Her daughter was born premature and had multiple health issues, she had a two month hospital stay before being allowed to come home. There were a lot of women like this one, pregnancy isn't seen as an illness and the only reason you see a doctor is when you're sick. Unbelievable...
7
Seems to me that impoverished southern whites eagerly vote against their own health and safety because they've been told that people with darker skin might benefit, too. to some southern whites, keeping dark people down is worth their own sacrifice.
168
Southerners, white or not, have been fairly unlikely to have health insurance, or at least useful insurance. My Florida county was over 20% uninsured before Obamacare, now down to maybe 15%. Expanded Medicaid would be very helpful. When you add that pregnancies tend to be among young women with inadequate finances, things aren't good at all.
The small Planned Parenthood clinic that was a short walk from my house was, of course, picketed every week by abortion opponents.
The small Planned Parenthood clinic that was a short walk from my house was, of course, picketed every week by abortion opponents.
20
No, they don't know they're sacrificing anything. They believe the contrived rhetoric that undeserving people not like themselves live off of taxpayer-provided benefits, and it never occurs to them that the denial of these benefits hurts them as well; hurts everybody. Blinded by bigotry and prejudice nurtured by persons who cynically use them to gain power and shape the country to their purposes.
3
I think that's an undeniable truth. Why? I've heard it with my own ears, all my life.
I'm having a hard time verifying the statistic involving maternal mortality that you cite. The data for maternal deaths provided at the link stops for the US in 2007. According to this data 12.7 mothers died per 100,000 live births in 2007 in the U.S. In comparison in Britain 7.1 mothers died per 100,000 live births in 2007. 12.7 divided by 7.1 is not 5. Perhaps you're referring to data elsewhere?
2
Hey Chris:
We are at 26.4 per 100k births, way higher than any Western nation.
Check out :
"Global, regional, and national levels of maternal mortality, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015," The Lancet. Only data for 1990, 2000 and 2015 was made available in the journal.
I found the info on this thing called Google.
We are at 26.4 per 100k births, way higher than any Western nation.
Check out :
"Global, regional, and national levels of maternal mortality, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015," The Lancet. Only data for 1990, 2000 and 2015 was made available in the journal.
I found the info on this thing called Google.
41
That's for childbirth only (7.1). You have to add the deaths during pregnancy
20
The question was about the data source cited by Nicholas Kristof not about other sources. I can only assume that, like me, you were unable to find the statistic in the data provided by Mr. Kristof. I would hope that Mr. Kristoff would be more careful or use google.
Nobody is more hateful or dangerous to women than a man worried about his own virility. Thus does Donald Trump anxiously monitor his testosterone levels at the same time he goes about demeaning women in a hundred different ways.
There's a big fat Texas redneck just beneath that Rogaine-enhanced New York comb-over. Why else pick a doofus like Rick Perry as energy secretary? Low-T anxiety, that's why. Don't mess with Trump and his ilk, ladies, or they'll find more ways to mess with you than cutting off your birth control.
The only part of the human life-span they care about is the nine months we spend in the womb. After that, it's hasta la vista to the Have-Nots.
Meanwhile, Kristof's antidote is unnecessarily weak. Rather than increased "access" to contraception and prenatal care, what we really need is Medicare for All, or single-payer health care. Sadistic states like Texas would then be helpless to turn back the clock, given that fully 100% of the population would be contributing beneficiaries.
Despite having some of the highest maternal (and infant) mortality rates in the "civilized" world, the US also has the highest per capita medical costs. The mortality rate is also plummeting for middle-aged women, as is life expectancy once a Have-Not reaches the age of 60.
Being pro-life must also include improved housing policy, living wage /guaranteed income, subsidized child care, enhanced food assistance, strong public education, and an end to our destructive wars.
There's a big fat Texas redneck just beneath that Rogaine-enhanced New York comb-over. Why else pick a doofus like Rick Perry as energy secretary? Low-T anxiety, that's why. Don't mess with Trump and his ilk, ladies, or they'll find more ways to mess with you than cutting off your birth control.
The only part of the human life-span they care about is the nine months we spend in the womb. After that, it's hasta la vista to the Have-Nots.
Meanwhile, Kristof's antidote is unnecessarily weak. Rather than increased "access" to contraception and prenatal care, what we really need is Medicare for All, or single-payer health care. Sadistic states like Texas would then be helpless to turn back the clock, given that fully 100% of the population would be contributing beneficiaries.
Despite having some of the highest maternal (and infant) mortality rates in the "civilized" world, the US also has the highest per capita medical costs. The mortality rate is also plummeting for middle-aged women, as is life expectancy once a Have-Not reaches the age of 60.
Being pro-life must also include improved housing policy, living wage /guaranteed income, subsidized child care, enhanced food assistance, strong public education, and an end to our destructive wars.
371
I generally agree with Kristof's concerns, but Donald Trump and Rick Perry have nothing to do with a national increase in maternal deaths in recent years. I see from Kristof's graphs that the increase in maternal deaths began in the 1990s and accelerated since, a time when Democrats mostly had control of the national government.
9
Bob,
It has doubled in Texas since they defunded Planned Parenthood.
Republicans have consequences.
Christian fundamentalism has the same consequences as Islamist fundamentalism.
It has doubled in Texas since they defunded Planned Parenthood.
Republicans have consequences.
Christian fundamentalism has the same consequences as Islamist fundamentalism.
60
--but not the statehouses.
6
Young people in Texas high schools receive abstinence-only rather than comprehensive sex education, if they receive any instruction at all. Therefore, they do not learn about the advantages of varying forms of birth control, where to get it, how to use it and its importance in delaying pregnancy either while in school or later in life. Students in comprehensive programs that include both abstinence as well as contraception would also learn the importance of prenatal care when they become pregnant by choice and planning.
180
It would be better for all, if they just didn't get pregnant.
Well, sure, Jane. And it would be better for all if everybody were ideal weight. But that ain't gonna happen either. The human race has lasted eons because we have a strong instinct FOR procreation, along with eating and breathing.
2
In my Texas high school -- Class of 1967 -- hardly anyone graduated as a virgin, and the few that did were either total losers or embarrassed by their status. But most of us were members of conservative Protestant churches: Southern Baptist, Southern Methodist, Assembly of God, etc. The message of complete abstinence ain't working. You always think that your luck will hold: God loves you, right? You go to church.
1
The US has a systemic problem with the entire healthcare system. Every other first world democracy (and most other countries) have guaranteed universal healthcare for all their citizens. At a bare minimum, 23 have better overall public healthcare results than the US and none spend more than 50%, per capita, of what we spend for healthcare. But for the ideologues, a sane society would pick one (or the best parts of each) - and eventually we probably will.
Winston Churchill had it right; "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
Winston Churchill had it right; "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
149
This article helps to highlight a little known (and shameful) public health problem in the United States. However, focusing exclusively on the role of OB/GYN physicians obscures an important fact. Most all industrialized countries (including Sweden and Ireland which have had maternal mortality rates of zero) have significantly higher numbers of nurse midwives providing excellent prenatal, birthing, and post-natal care. (source: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Healthcare_p...
89
I agree that nurse mid-wives, who even do home visits, could greatly decrease our maternal/infant mortality rates. Besides the fact that we have a lot more people in isolated rural areas than they do in Europe, we also have a lack of providers and hospitals that can handle deliveries in these areas as well as a lack of providers in large cities. A coordinated system of nurse mid-wives along with better access to acute maternal infant care for rural areas would help.
19
Europeans can have nurse midwives and visiting nurses for women/babies after birth -- because nurses in Europe earn $35,000 a year.
Nurse in the US can't do that kind of care -- their time is just too valuable, since they earn an average of $65,000 to $75,000 -- double what their European counterparts earn.
This is also true of US doctors. Doctors in France still make house calls, but they also earn $80,000 a year. Doctors in the US earn an average of $300,000 a year.
DO THE MATH.
Nurse in the US can't do that kind of care -- their time is just too valuable, since they earn an average of $65,000 to $75,000 -- double what their European counterparts earn.
This is also true of US doctors. Doctors in France still make house calls, but they also earn $80,000 a year. Doctors in the US earn an average of $300,000 a year.
DO THE MATH.
2
Concerned Citizen, I would respect your opinions more if you would cite your sources.
Canadian nurses working full time make from $70,000 (straight out of school, a straight 9-5 job) to well over $100,000 with more years of experience, higher skills and shift work. The average GP who works full time makes about $350,000 before expenses, and does not have ruinous malpractice insurance costs. I am not going to cite sources, other than my recent job in healthcare where I produced payroll and made budgets.
Canada has better health metrics in all areas than the US does.
Canadian nurses working full time make from $70,000 (straight out of school, a straight 9-5 job) to well over $100,000 with more years of experience, higher skills and shift work. The average GP who works full time makes about $350,000 before expenses, and does not have ruinous malpractice insurance costs. I am not going to cite sources, other than my recent job in healthcare where I produced payroll and made budgets.
Canada has better health metrics in all areas than the US does.
17
It's shocking to read this article. Not because I haven't heard this before, but because I have heard this before -- the rate of maternal and/or infant mortality in the late 80s when I had my first child was high in the U.S., but then largely among the lower income groups. In the U.S., we care more about those who can pay for services than those who cannot. That is the bottom line.
99
As an active ObGyn responsible for women's health and lives I agree wholeheartedly with ensuring that women survive pregnancy healthily.
My daughter moved to Paris 5 years ago, and says she will never move back to the US because universal healthcare in Europe is so wonderful. Germany became and is an economic powerhouse after they introduced universal healthcare. The US is the only major industrialized country without universal health care. In New York the hospitals are different levels of care, quality, and differences in maternal mortality. That just does not happen in Europe.
My daughter moved to Paris 5 years ago, and says she will never move back to the US because universal healthcare in Europe is so wonderful. Germany became and is an economic powerhouse after they introduced universal healthcare. The US is the only major industrialized country without universal health care. In New York the hospitals are different levels of care, quality, and differences in maternal mortality. That just does not happen in Europe.
608
AmosG....these more positive systems abroad are just what Kristof and other columnists should be focussing on, along with their exposure of our bad conditions. We need concrete examples from other democracies for contrast. Their different attitudes, and ways of financing h/c and other benefits are not discussed in the US media.
We only get these contrasts from comments usually. If our press would use this data, it would influence public opinion, and give voters something to throw in the faces of our lawmakers.
But in France and Germany, their parliaments and leaders are not dependent on billions in campaign donations from big insurance and other corporations to run for office, like in USA. Maybe a major factor? That's something else our columnists avoid.
We only get these contrasts from comments usually. If our press would use this data, it would influence public opinion, and give voters something to throw in the faces of our lawmakers.
But in France and Germany, their parliaments and leaders are not dependent on billions in campaign donations from big insurance and other corporations to run for office, like in USA. Maybe a major factor? That's something else our columnists avoid.
40
Meredith:
One very important issue you must always keep in mind. America is one of only two countries in the world that allows unfettered advertising from the drug and healthcare industry. I am sure you realize that represents BILLIONS in annual revenue to numerous media outlets, especially television and, of course, meaningful discussions, as you propose, are purposely ignored so media executives do not wish to "bite the hand that feeds them".
One very important issue you must always keep in mind. America is one of only two countries in the world that allows unfettered advertising from the drug and healthcare industry. I am sure you realize that represents BILLIONS in annual revenue to numerous media outlets, especially television and, of course, meaningful discussions, as you propose, are purposely ignored so media executives do not wish to "bite the hand that feeds them".
11
Nor does it happen in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia , New Zealand , Canada and many other countries other than in Europe.
3
One third of teenagers get pregnant in the United States yet only one sixth of them even bother to vote. We might urge them to vote in their own self interest which would include electing politicians that don't try to close Planned Parenthood. The fraction of 18-24 year olds that that vote is a fundamental problem that relates to this problem.
104
Without a more comprehensive national prenatal health system many pregnant women will die. The Amy in this article was a young married woman. Why this rant about young adults not voting? That is a secondary issue. I am all in favor of 100% voting, without participation democracy can't survive, but, first, let's save the women at risk.
34
Quatt, making it an either-or decision is giving up. Don't.
5
Paul Sutton, great idea to encourage young women and men to vote. More urgently, though, we need to educate them about contraception, abortion, and prenatal care, and we need to provide all three at no cost. These kids may eventually come to understand the importance of political engagement, but they are less likely to do so if they are saddled with a child they can't afford, or, worse, if they're dead.
Heather Collins
Heather Collins
11