Dying mothers should shock Texas into action

[sheshe2]

Childbirth is the closest a woman can come to death.

That's what Houston state Rep. Shawn Thierry said on the House floor this past week. She was quoting her grandmother, born in 1920.

"Here we are, a century later in Texas," Thierry said. And for an alarming number of women, the saying is still true.

Texas has the highest rate, by far, of maternal mortality in the nation. And, with the exception of Mexico, Texas has the highest rate in the developed world.

Let that sink in.

In a state that boasts the world-renowned Texas Medical Center, a state where "pro-life" is a battle cry of powerful elected leaders, women are dying at troubling rates before, during and after giving birth from conditions such as hypertension, pre-eclampsia, sepsis and hemorrhage.

More: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/columnists/falkenberg/article/Dying-mothers-should-shock-Texas-into-action-11736908.php

Let that sink in and continue to read. I have no idea why pro-lifers hate the mothers so.

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. It Is The Price For Having Sex. Particularly If Woman NOT Married.

Last edited Mon Aug 7, 2017, 08:53 PM - Edit history (1)

ADDENDUM - The view of pro lifers in Texas and elsewhere believe there is a price for having sex it being a necessary evil even under approved circumstances. We are still affected by Puritan ideals.

[sheshe2]

4. What?!

[TheMastersNemesis]

8. Not My View But View Of Fundamentalism.

Was just stating what many radical religionists believe in Texas and elsewhere.

[sheshe2]

11. Thank you.

Sorry. Sometimes it is hard to tell these days.

[sheshe2]

12. PS.

I did NOT alert on your post. I always wait for an explanation.

[Coventina]

5. I just served on a jury for this post.

I let it slide because I was assuming it was sarcasm.

I will regret my decision if I am shown to be mistaken.

[sheshe2]

13. Also...I was not the one that alerted.

They explained their post. You voted well.

[Coventina]

14. Like you said upthread: it can be hard to tell sometimes.

We've been having ugly fights about women's rights lately, but I went with my gut.

Glad to see I was right!

[sheshe2]

15. I am glad you were as well, Coventina.

People need to be careful what they post. It is a hard time right now.

[Ninsianna]

28. Nope. These are not even puritan ideals, this is misogyny pure and simple

it's all about controlling women, especially since the women doing the dying are poor.

There is nothing pro-life about these bloodthirsty anti-choicers, they have no such beliefs, you can tell because when it comes to themselves and their loved ones, an abortion becomes rather moral indeed.

Rick Sanctorum (spelling intended) is proof, when it was HIS wife, he had no problem with inducing delivery despite the fetus having no chance at life.

Either we let this rampant hypocrisy ride and watch our maternal mortality skyrocket, in the worst levels in what some people insist is the only "modern" world, the white European one and the places where they illegally immigrated to, or we call it out.

We cannot let this stand, and we won't let these pro-death terrorists do so.

[gratuitous]

2. Pro-lifers hate mothers because they hate women

Texas won't be shocked into action until every citizen in the state has a close friend or relative die in childbirth, and for some it will take more than one.

[Ninsianna]

29. They also hate life, they have no fondness for the fetus either.

[smirkymonkey]

37. Bingo!

This, exactly!

[Squinch]

3. Dying mothers are what Texas was going for. The better to control you through fear, my dear.

[irisblue]

20. this

[JHan]

6. thanks sheshe, important read esp. in light of recent discussions *Sigh*

[BainsBane]

7. Note that this is new, since their very aggressive abortion restrictions

And we see people argue we must be flexible toward this to win.

Is that what people really want the Democratic Party to stand for?

[TheMastersNemesis]

9. No Way To Win Votes From Those Nuts.

[BainsBane]

10. Exactly

[sheshe2]

17. You are correct.

Thanks.

[sheshe2]

19. You are the articulate one, Bains,

Me. I will just say that they can go fugg themselves. I find their attitude antiquated. They just don't care that mothers die without healthcare.

[broadcaster90210]

16. It won't.

These people don't think or act like human beings. They have NO compassion. They only have their hate.

[Igel]

18. There's a counter story.

Rates doubled and stayed high right after Texas changed reporting procedures and standards. The Texas commission also doubts the numbers are that high.

Which just means they don't know exactly where they are. But the main problem is they don't know why. Thierry gives numbers that push for the action she wants. Without understanding the causes, that's valiant but not the best course of action. (I'm really not the "don't just stand there, do something" kind of person. In most situations, most things you could do will either hurt or simply not help but will keep you from doing the few that would help.)

We need stats. If it's pre-eclampsia, for example, that's responsible for a chunk of deaths it is because the women are isolated? Lack insurance? Use folk remedies? What? (No, "all of the above" isn't a good answer because resources are limited and you need to target what you have to solve the problems that are the most serious. If it's mostly women who are isolated because there are no doctors nearby, they're stuck. Can't draft doctors. Want to pay them extra to live in the middle of nowhere? How much? If it's folk remedies, then an information campaign is appropriate. But if you run it in Chinese and those using the folk remedies are "anglos", what's the point?)

[kag]

21. Okay, but...

The story says that the first thing they did was extend the task force that is studying the problem. You say "we need stats". Well, that's the main thing they're working on--collecting stats.

Also, I agree that more information is always good, but action is critical too. Whether the numbers are valid or not, there is obviously a problem. Actions like providing pregnant women and new mothers with vital information about things like pre-ecclempsia and postpartum depression can't hurt.

[Shrike47]

24. I had pre-eclampsia twice. Great insurance, great medical care. Damn near died.

I would never force anyone to go through that.

[Ilsa]

38. Had it the first time,

Damn near died, also. Horrible thing, to be able to see your monitors and know what they mean.

Had excellent insurance and medical care, too.

[Dustlawyer]

31. I am sure there are several factors in play, but lack of abortion facilites

is a big one.

Another that doesn't get much play is that Texas passed one of the most draconian medical malpractice tort reform laws several years ago that has all but stopped med-mal cases. The made it very expensive, capped the damages that can be recovered, and made it harder to prove. Studies show that approximately 6% of doctors commit 90% of all medical malpractice. The State Board governing physicians rarely revokes a doctor's medical license. These doctors continue to kill and injure their patients long after they should have been stopped. While Obstetricians had the highest insurance rates due to medical malpractice, research an orthopedic surgeon in Houston that was nicknamed "Eric the Red" for more of what we have had to put up with.

[TexasBushwhacker]

39. All I know is the deaths went up after a bunch of rural Planned Parenthoods closed n/t

[Bettie]

22. That assumes that the people who run the state

care. At. All.

They don't.

[sandensea]

23. Note: Mexico is not in 'the developed world'.

It's a member of the OECD - which is mostly made up of developed countries.

But for largely political reasons it also includes Chile, Turkey, and, yes, Mexico.

That said, out maternal mortality rate is indeed approaching that of developing countries: at 26.4 per 100,000 births, it's three to six times higher than in other developed countries.

[Ninsianna]

35. Not sure why it's important to make this distinction, but for largely political

reasons the "developing countries" so many sneer at, have a lower maternal mortality than we do in many cases, we're the worst among the "developed" (read White European) ones.

For example, the young dentist who died in Ireland, Savita Halappnavar would not have died had she been home in Bangalore, but oh-so-developed Ireland, not only did she suffer an extremely painful death, despite "modern" medicine, the "developed" citizens of that nation thought her death was justified.

Let's not get hung up on these views of artificial superiority. The countries that spent the last half of the last century recovering from the rape and abuse of the centuries before are no longer behind us, they are ahead of us in many metrics, maternal mortality and things like basic access to care are some of them.

[Lonestarblue]

25. Republican Texas legislators just do not care.

The article says there is no proof that slashing the family planning budget in 2011 is linked to more maternal deaths, but more than 80 clinics had to close, many of them the only clinic for hundreds of miles in poor rural areas and most of them not even providing abortions. The other factor is that Texas refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA, which would have provided more poor women with access to affordable healthcare. While there are certainly poor white women in Texas, many of the poor are black or hispanic. And Republican legislators simply don't care. Those are not the people who give big bucks for their reelection campaigns. Poor women are not able to access preventive care, but Texas also has refused to allow the collection of data on why women die. No data, no proof that they're doing anything wrong. These right-wing men are legislating death, but they just keep being reelected. Horrifying and disgusting that religion is driving legislation that literally leads to deaths from lack of care.

[ck4829]

26. This is oppression of women, plain and simple.

There is nothing accidental about this, healthcare in the United States is more about social control than about the treatment of illness and injury.

And in this case, institutions in Texas are looking to regulate without protecting.

[brer cat]

27. Because the aren't pro-life in the least.

They are pro-patriarchy and subservience by women and minorities. It's always about power and control.

[mercuryblues]

30. who wants to bet what the results will be

1/ women are not getting pre-pregnancy medical care. No yearly checkups. No prescription for birth control

2/as a result women with health problems are getting pregnant. Getting very little pre-natal care

3/go into labor and now these health problems kick into high gear.

4/ because the women have had very little pre natal care, they are not aware that the health problems they had are now dangerous or that they have developed health problems during the pregnancy.

5/ Doctors are not prepared for these problems because they most likely have only seen the women a few times during the pregnancy, if at all.

6/ less than 2 years later lather, rinse repeat. Because of limited access to healthcare women have lost access to birth control they are getting pregnant before their bodies recover from the previous pregnancy.

7/Republicans will claim the closures of the women's clinics has nothing to do with this and blame the woman dying. Calling it God's will.

[UTUSN]

32. Texas - *action*?!1 (BEGALA: "TX is not a RED state; it's a NON-voting state.")

[TexasTowelie]

33. Thanks for posting.

I've touched upon this topic a few times in the Texas Group. With the high uninsured rate and early 20th century values in most of Texas we are reaping the rewards for the lack of compassion shown by our elected officials.

[Initech]

34. Dan Patrick will just blame it on the democrats.

These monsters don't give a fuck. All they care about is discrediting the other side.

[xajj4791]

36. not sure what all that jury stuff was about, i did not see anything that needed explaining personall

But to comment on the thread itself, yes right wing religious conservatives do often see forcing women to have babies as punishment for having sex. I have spoken to enough of them to know for certain.

The pro-life group has always had the issue that they want to ban abortions but they also want to do away with food stamps, WIC, healthcare, etc, that allow for those children to be taken care of adequately in many cases. This highlights the lie within their pro-life campaign. they are not pro-life, they are pro-controlling women's bodies.