Did you know that out of all the 31 countries in the OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) The United States has the second highest maternal mortality rate?! Way to Bronze Medal America! I think that’s worth having a poop attack over to say the VERY least. I mean, I knew we ranked low in math and science testing scores. I even knew that out of the 25 wealthiest nations in the world we were the only one without Universal Health Care — a fact I find nauseatingly sad and embarrassing. But in mom deaths? Not us!
I mean every time funding gets cut to Planned Parenthood, Title X clinics or sex education isn’t the argument from the anti-choice side that we want to take care of women and women’s health? Didn’t Fox News tell us that there are tons and tons of places for women to find healthcare services besides clinics, like The Salvation Army and at Walgreens blood pressure machines? Well apparently this information is false. What?!?! Who would have guessed that, besides everyone (said like Gary Oldman in Leon: The Professional), EVERYONNNNNNNNNNNE!
Take Texas for example, always a shining pillar of women’s health options, where the maternal mortality rate doubled from the year 2000 to 2014 from 17.7 to 23.8 (per 100,000 live births). In comparison, the maternal mortality rate in Germany is 4.1 per 100,000 live births, just so you know.
For all the blustering talk about how we care about women’s health and respect motherhood it seems that the numbers here speak for themselves. We don’t care. It’s appalling. We have the second highest GDP in the world and we have essentially the same maternal mortality death rate as Uruguay – who has the 95th ranking for GDP. WHERE’S OUR FUCKING MONEY GOING!?!?!?!?! Not to women’s health care, not to moms, not to birthing. AND WE KNOW IT AIN’T GOING TO BIRTH CONTROL.
If we look at how we spend our money as a refection of how we value things it becomes painfully clear that anyone who argues “we care about women” or “we are protecting motherhood” is totally full of shit. I'm disgusted. We are supposed to be a civilized culture. It's about time we start acting like one by respecting and investing in women's health.
