Alarming Rise In Maternal Deaths In Texas Highlights Failure In US

Republicans unwillingness to allocate any money to fight the spread of the Zika virus shows a complete lack of interest in the pre-natal health of babies. And their attitude towards mothers is almost about the same. A new study has shown that pregnancy-related deaths spiked dramatically in Texas in 2011 and 2012, more than doubling from the prior two year period. This just so happened to correspond to Texas' decision to cut family planning funds by two-thirds, resulting in the closure of 82 family planning clinics across the state and serving less than half the number of people than previously. The increase in pregnancy-related deaths is greater than can be explained by just the cutback in services alone, indicating some other factors may also be at work. But there is no doubt that the reduction in services has increased mortality during pregnancy in the state.

Of course, the study in Texas merely highlights a problem that exists across the country. According to the World Health Organization, the United States is the only developed country in the world where maternal deaths actually increased in the 20 years up to 2013. That represented the sixth largest increase among all countries throughout the world. The six other countries that actually had a larger increase in maternal deaths in that 20 year period were Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, Afghanistan, Belize, and Thailand. When it comes to health outcomes, those are not countries you want to have as peers. The culprit is, of course, the inability of this country to provide affordable and accessible quality health care to all our citizens along with the factors of race and poverty. In addition, restrictive abortion laws also contribute to higher maternal deaths. Worldwide, unsafe abortions are one of the three leading causes of maternal deaths.

For those of you living in Texas, I'd like to offer a shameless plug for a health clinic in South Texas that does incredible work for men's and women's health and family planning. The Women's and Men's Health Services of the Coastal Bend does fantastic work in providing preventive and primary care for over 11,000 women and men each year. You can read about the organization here and make a donation to keep this great facility going here. In addition, they put on one of the most unique fashion shows every year in Corpus Christie - all the outfits are made of condoms. You would not believe the creativity of some of the designers. So please try to give them a few bucks if you can.  Here are a few photos from last year's fashion show: