With maternal mortality and preterm birth rates at an all time high, reversal of Roe is a major factor

[niyad]

With maternal mortality and preterm birth rates at an all time high, reversal of Roe is a major factor
Emma Hall | February 2, 2024

According to data from the 2022 study completed by the U.S. GAO office, maternal death rates in the U.S. are at an all time high, where significant factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the reversal of Roe v. Wade greatly exacerbated the situation. From 2019 to 2021, maternal death rates rose 40%, a number that reflects the greatest impact on women of color. The rising maternal death rate is deeply concerning as we enter into 2024, a year in which we should have the most technology, knowledge, and resources available for prenatal and postpartum care. Yet, the U.S. is facing more maternal death rates than ever, with a significant number of these deaths a direct result of racial disparity within the U.S. healthcare system.

In 2022, for every 100,000 live births in the U.S. there were 68.9 maternal deaths of Black women, 27.5 maternal deaths of Latina and Hispanic women, and 26.1 maternal deaths for white women. These statistics represent not only an appalling number of maternal deaths, but also a deep disparity in the maternal health care services that women of color face, with Black women facing 2.6 times higher maternal mortality rates than white women in the U.S. Disparity in health care services for women of color in the U.S. is a devastating reality. Past experiences of racial trauma and discrimination faced by women of color, systematic racism and bias within the U.S. healthcare system, and socioeconomic struggles that result in lesser access to quality maternal health care are just a few of the factors leading to an inequitable distribution of proper care for women obtaining prenatal care. These issues were only heightened in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Covid accounting for 25% of maternal deaths, a great number of which were women of color.

Yet, the pandemic was not the only driving factor in driving maternal death rates. The recent reversal of Roe v. Wade has also served as a significant factor in reducing proper access to maternal care. With maternal death rates 62% higher in states with abortion bans and restricted access to reproductive health services, the reversal of Roe is working to perpetuate maternal mortality rates, particularly in southern states with greater populations of women of color, and the most restrictions of reproductive health services and abortion access.
Lack of proper maternal health care is also a large factor in preterm birth and death rates, currently at a global high. With maternal health care quality and preterm deaths closely linked, it is imperative to target these issues at the source and work to provide quality, accessible, and equitable maternal health care for prenatal and postpartum mothers and babies across the world.

Calling for better health care for women is a common occurrence in the face of Roe’s reversal, one which is frustratingly ignored in many U.S. states quick to pass abortion bans. Yet, devastatingly it is this very lack of health care that is contributing significantly to preterm births, preterm death rates, and maternal mortality all across the U.S, and thus increasing these rates across the world. The statistics provide a grim picture of reality, and reading them clearly provides an urgent need for change in the health care of women and mothers, especially the women of color who are most impacted by such devastating factors. With increased access to health professionals, safe access to educated health professionals in the field as well as overall investment in maternal health throughout the country, many of these harsh statistics could be greatly reduced. With 80% of pregnancy deaths being preventable, there is certainly no reason to have such high maternal mortality rates. It is clear what needs to be done. Through eradicating the numerous healthcare tragedies that reversing Roe has brought to creating more accessible health care for women all over the U.S., preterm complications and mother and infant mortality rates can be greatly reduced. There is no excuse for such a high mortality rate, nor is there an excuse to be denying women and children all over the U.S. the proper health care they deserve.

https://feminist.org/news/with-maternal-mortality-and-preterm-birth-rates-at-an-all-time-high-reversal-of-roe-is-a-major-factor/

[Igel]

1. Sorry.

It's a been a very rough, 13-hour day and I'm fully pulled back behind my emotional barriers. Talk math, cite data. Or pass me a gin and tonic or my foreign language vocab vocab cards for memorization. Time to beef up my kanji. (From a language never on my bucket list. Sprog needs comforting by sharing his Nihongo no benkyoo, who am I to object? To him, at least. Newest addition to flash cards ... 歩く... argh.)

The "In 2022" from the OP refers to the date of the report, which refers only to prior years, and not to 2022 data. I found this misleading until I did a fairly shallow Go ogle search. It seemed that a 2022 study referred to data good through end of 2022, which is counterfactual. It's like me doing a year end report on politics for 2024 next week--ain't gonna happen because I' mired in year 2024 of block time.

R v W was reversed in June 2022. This report can say nothing about the effects of R v W because there were no data for 2022 even at the report's publication. "Listening to the glass in her hand break as it hit the floor, spilling her gin and tonic, Joan picked up the gin and tonic and, startled, dropped it" is a fine sentence but has no semantic form in temporal logic. It's up there with "In his 2nd year as President Biden, urged his supporters in January 2020 to go and vote him into office for his first term as president."

Had 2022 data been available in 10/22 (quite a bit of temporal wizardry), the effects of the R v W reversal would have been good for at most 5 1/2 months. An argument could be made that since restrictive abortion laws were passed in numerous states prior to 6/22 the net effects of a R v W reversal were phased in is reasonable, but gives mixed results (others have looked at the data), but the source in the OP didn't bother with it. IMO, for good reason.

Note that the full effects of R v W's reversal will first be seen in 2023's data, which won't be finalized for a few months. The 2022 and early 2023 data--all provisional, I'd note, and subject to very substantive revision, but which which could not possibly have been included in the report referred to in the OP because nobody here or in the report-preparing authority has a TARDIS--is available.

Where? Here: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/provisional-maternal-deaths-rates.htm

I find it at least partially counter-narrative. The great "increase" that's "due to" the reversal of R v W subsided pretty much immediately after the reversal of R v W, at least at the national level. All the way down to the levels from 2015 or 2016? No. But rates were increasing prior to COVID and the 2022 and early 2023 data say that as a country, "we" (which does not include me by virtue of physiology) were there again by the end of the CDC as of the date of this posting).

Ah. Another gin and tonic.

ごめんなさい.