This cut to Medicaid are from the same people who restrict reproductive rights. You can't have it both ways. Again, MAGA and the Trump regime prove they are NOT pro-life.
In South Dakota the rural hospitals are discontinuing doing deliveries. The excuse they give is that they “cannot afford” to hire someone to do the few emergency c-sections so they stopped all deliveries. A woman in labor from a town in the middle of the state would have to travel 2 1/2+ hours to get to Sioux Falls or Rapid City. People with money are planning to stay near the cities around their due dates. The poor cannot afford this. This really affects the Native American population. Someone should sue the hospitals and make them do better. Norm?
This info is incredibly dispiriting to me. It seems like some health care administrators hate pregnant women maybe as much as Republicans. I just don't get it. Literally every person on earth is here because a pregnant woman gave birth to them. Every. Single. Person. And yet, we don't treat pregnant women with respect or support them financially. It's heartbreaking.
"It’s hard for me to see the endgame here, unless the goal is for more American mothers and babies to die, despite Republicans’ “pro-life” and increasingly “pro-natalist” rhetoric."
Commenting from Canada:
Republicans are pro-life and pro-natalist *only* for well-off white women who will reliably vote Republican. Of course they want them to breed like crazy to stave off the demographic transition. (That's also why the Repubs want to encourage white South Africans to emigrate to the USA.)
They simply *do not care* what happens to anyone else. Sorry, but the evidence is pretty clear.
Thanks for writing in from Canada! Congrats on your new anti-Trump Prime Minister. I was intending to be provocative with this column and to get readers to think. My sense is that most Americans have no idea how high the number of pregnant women on Medicaid is. I wanted to get readers to think about people in their lives who are pregnant, to, I hope, create empathy. Contrarian readers already know the stakes here, but spelling it out can still be helpful and important--that is my belief at least.
Republicans don’t give a damn. All they’re interested in is preserving the aristocracy they created for themselves. The maternal mortality rate is probably higher than what’s been reported. Take Texas for example, any medically necessary abortion is illegal there. If a woman dies even if it’s a preventable death they will cook the books and fudge the data with false information. Consider who is over the state pregnancy loss reporting system. Ingrid Skop, a Christian nationalist and quack OB/GYN who says abortion is never medically necessary. They might try to hide it from the state and the public at large but, they can’t hide it from the large University based medical centers that have high volume deliveries from all over the state.
My niece who works in the NICU at a large University hospital in Birmingham sees this every single day. She says there are more NICU babies now because these women don’t have prenatal care and limited access to Medicaid. Many of them are poor and have chronic health issues so it’s no surprise the mortality rate has gone up. Because so many hospitals have closed in my state of Alabama, this is probably also the case at the other University hospital in Mobile Alabama, USA/University of South Alabama.
Aside from pregnancy complications is the Native American population in southwestern Alabama who depends on Medicaid to treat a rare genetic disorder in that population. There is only one hospital in that part of the state and a certain physician who treats these patients. They have to drive a ways to get there because it’s a sparsely populated area of the state and so many other hospitals have closed.
Finally not having enough hospitals has a domino effect. With so few hospitals and a serious accident on I-65 means that depending on where you are you will be taken to the nearest hospital ER at UAB or USA where a major medical emergency can be properly managed. If you’re in North Alabama then you’re a bit luckier. More hospitals and more highly populated.
Wow. This is a stark and sobering portrayal of what life is like around the country for pregnant women, especially poor women and women of color. Your description of the loss of hospitals having a domino effect is powerful and spot on. It's beyond disturbing to me that turning health care into a product for sale, rather than a service that helps people, has led to so many people simply not having access to care. Thank you for taking the time to write this long and important comment.
To cut medicaid is a direct attack on the health and safety of millions of Americans ... and will impact those with insurance when healthcare facilities close. Cutting medicaid would have all the ambiance of a Marie Antoinette telling the masses, "Let them eat cake" ... and in the end things didn't turn out so well for Marie, either.
You make an excellent point--how many health care facilities will close if the proposed Medicaid cuts go through? The health care version of "Let them eat cake" seems to be "Anyone can go to the ER," but if hospitals close there are no ERs. And you're right, Marie Antoinette's obliviousness and class absorption didn't save her in the end.
Considering that Republican politicians in Mississippi (with the highest maternal mortality rate, last time I looked) only wants to count white maternal and infant deaths, I'd say yes, they do want more to die. They are marching to Gilead, and in the book, rather than the series, there were NO people of color.
Thank you for posting. You make the stakes of the debate over Medicaid very clear--women will die and especially women of color. It's a scary time we live in. My hope is that spreading the truth will help more and more people see how dangerous and anti-American the Republicans' positions are--on many things, but especially on women and babies. "Pro-life" my foot!
This cut to Medicaid are from the same people who restrict reproductive rights. You can't have it both ways. Again, MAGA and the Trump regime prove they are NOT pro-life.
Agree 100% Not pro-life at all.
In South Dakota the rural hospitals are discontinuing doing deliveries. The excuse they give is that they “cannot afford” to hire someone to do the few emergency c-sections so they stopped all deliveries. A woman in labor from a town in the middle of the state would have to travel 2 1/2+ hours to get to Sioux Falls or Rapid City. People with money are planning to stay near the cities around their due dates. The poor cannot afford this. This really affects the Native American population. Someone should sue the hospitals and make them do better. Norm?
This info is incredibly dispiriting to me. It seems like some health care administrators hate pregnant women maybe as much as Republicans. I just don't get it. Literally every person on earth is here because a pregnant woman gave birth to them. Every. Single. Person. And yet, we don't treat pregnant women with respect or support them financially. It's heartbreaking.
If you meet someone in South Dakota they are likely a republican like Kristi Noem.
"It’s hard for me to see the endgame here, unless the goal is for more American mothers and babies to die, despite Republicans’ “pro-life” and increasingly “pro-natalist” rhetoric."
Commenting from Canada:
Republicans are pro-life and pro-natalist *only* for well-off white women who will reliably vote Republican. Of course they want them to breed like crazy to stave off the demographic transition. (That's also why the Repubs want to encourage white South Africans to emigrate to the USA.)
They simply *do not care* what happens to anyone else. Sorry, but the evidence is pretty clear.
Thanks for writing in from Canada! Congrats on your new anti-Trump Prime Minister. I was intending to be provocative with this column and to get readers to think. My sense is that most Americans have no idea how high the number of pregnant women on Medicaid is. I wanted to get readers to think about people in their lives who are pregnant, to, I hope, create empathy. Contrarian readers already know the stakes here, but spelling it out can still be helpful and important--that is my belief at least.
Republicans don’t give a damn. All they’re interested in is preserving the aristocracy they created for themselves. The maternal mortality rate is probably higher than what’s been reported. Take Texas for example, any medically necessary abortion is illegal there. If a woman dies even if it’s a preventable death they will cook the books and fudge the data with false information. Consider who is over the state pregnancy loss reporting system. Ingrid Skop, a Christian nationalist and quack OB/GYN who says abortion is never medically necessary. They might try to hide it from the state and the public at large but, they can’t hide it from the large University based medical centers that have high volume deliveries from all over the state.
My niece who works in the NICU at a large University hospital in Birmingham sees this every single day. She says there are more NICU babies now because these women don’t have prenatal care and limited access to Medicaid. Many of them are poor and have chronic health issues so it’s no surprise the mortality rate has gone up. Because so many hospitals have closed in my state of Alabama, this is probably also the case at the other University hospital in Mobile Alabama, USA/University of South Alabama.
Aside from pregnancy complications is the Native American population in southwestern Alabama who depends on Medicaid to treat a rare genetic disorder in that population. There is only one hospital in that part of the state and a certain physician who treats these patients. They have to drive a ways to get there because it’s a sparsely populated area of the state and so many other hospitals have closed.
Finally not having enough hospitals has a domino effect. With so few hospitals and a serious accident on I-65 means that depending on where you are you will be taken to the nearest hospital ER at UAB or USA where a major medical emergency can be properly managed. If you’re in North Alabama then you’re a bit luckier. More hospitals and more highly populated.
Wow. This is a stark and sobering portrayal of what life is like around the country for pregnant women, especially poor women and women of color. Your description of the loss of hospitals having a domino effect is powerful and spot on. It's beyond disturbing to me that turning health care into a product for sale, rather than a service that helps people, has led to so many people simply not having access to care. Thank you for taking the time to write this long and important comment.
To cut medicaid is a direct attack on the health and safety of millions of Americans ... and will impact those with insurance when healthcare facilities close. Cutting medicaid would have all the ambiance of a Marie Antoinette telling the masses, "Let them eat cake" ... and in the end things didn't turn out so well for Marie, either.
You make an excellent point--how many health care facilities will close if the proposed Medicaid cuts go through? The health care version of "Let them eat cake" seems to be "Anyone can go to the ER," but if hospitals close there are no ERs. And you're right, Marie Antoinette's obliviousness and class absorption didn't save her in the end.
Considering that Republican politicians in Mississippi (with the highest maternal mortality rate, last time I looked) only wants to count white maternal and infant deaths, I'd say yes, they do want more to die. They are marching to Gilead, and in the book, rather than the series, there were NO people of color.
Thank you for posting. You make the stakes of the debate over Medicaid very clear--women will die and especially women of color. It's a scary time we live in. My hope is that spreading the truth will help more and more people see how dangerous and anti-American the Republicans' positions are--on many things, but especially on women and babies. "Pro-life" my foot!
I have that hope. I have the hope that before I die, I can change my avatar.
I refer to them as Pretend To Be Pro Life People, and have for years, now.
Thank you, for your response.