States pushing abortion bans have higher infant and maternal mortality rates

Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have in recent weeks passed some of the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation. But they have other things in common, too.

Four of those states have also declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, leaving a large number of pregnant women without health care.

The most startling similarity shared by all six states, however, is this: They all tend to have the highest rates of infant mortality in the nation.

"If the mother isn’t healthy, it’s unlikely the baby will be healthy," said Dr. Laura Riley, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

(snip)

The same states also have high rates of mothers dying during labor and after childbirth. About 700 women die from pregnancy-related causes every year and more than half of those deaths are preventable, according to a recent CDC report on maternal mortality.

Particularly striking is the rate of pregnant women and new mothers dying in Georgia. That state ranked 48th out of 50 in a measure of maternal mortality in the 2018 America’s Health Rankings from the United Health Foundation, with 46.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. Mississippi and Alabama’s rankings were better: at 32nd and 7th, respectively.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/states-pushing-abortion-bans-have-higher-infant-mortality-rates-n1008481

****** You'd better birth that baby without any prenatal or maternity care! Because we Christians value life! *******

Edit: and how F'd up is Ohio.... we have Medicaid expansion and we still are among the nations' leaders in maternal and infant mortality.