If pro-life Repubs want to save lives, they'd start with women and children in the reddest states
Are Republicans actually interested in saving babies' lives, or are they interested in making women's lives harder? So far, all signs point to the latter, and their actions this week indicate that they're only doubling down on their attacks on women while doing little to promote the health and lives of children.
American mothers and children are some of the least healthy, and least cared-for, in the industrialised world. Every year, more than 11,000 babies die within a day of being born in the US - 50 per cent more than in other developed nations. Maternal mortality rates are also higher here than in economically comparable countries, and they actually increased after the mid-1980s. Today, you're better off having a baby in Bosnia than in certain suburbs of Baltimore.
The causes are complex, but our high rates of teen pregnancy - higher, again, than any other developed nations - and poor access to health care are chief among them. Pregnancy and childbirth are also expensive undertakings in the US, and bringing a new baby home can be financially devastating to families. Even women who have insurance often find that it doesn't cover a full range of maternity services, and having a baby can be a $40,000 proposition. Giving birth in the US costs more than anywhere else in the world. Even with that kind of investment, women in the United States see poorer health care outcomes, and often find themselves rushed out of the hospital and sent home with a new infant while recovering from major abdominal surgery.
Child health
Families are hurting, people are ill, and moms and children are sick and sometimes even dying. There are lots of ways to fix this broken system, and indeed the Obama health care plan addresses many of them, including birth control access and maternity care coverage. What are Republicans doing to help? Well, they're vowing to support "life" while opposing nearly all of the measures that help women and babies live, and live healthily.
MORE...
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/07/2013741282453965.html