Pregnancy-Related Deaths Nearly Doubled In Texas After Cuts To Women’s Health

[cali]

Texas experienced a sudden and dramatic spike in pregnancy-related deaths in 2011, the same year the state slashed funding for Planned Parenthood and women’s health programs, according to a study in the September issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

After a modest increase in maternal mortality in Texas between 2000 and 2010, the rate of pregnancy-related deaths nearly doubled in 2011 and 2012 ― something researchers described as “puzzling” and out of sync with data from the other 49 states. Seventy-two women in Texas died from complications of pregnancy and childbirth in 2010, and that number jumped to 148 in 2012.

While the study does not suggest a clear cause for Texas’ alarming data, the rise in pregnancy-related deaths coincided with lawmakers slashing family planning funds by 66 percent in the state budget in 2011. The cuts forced 82 family planning clinics to close, one-third of which were Planned Parenthood clinics, and left Texas’ women’s health program able to serve less than half as many women as it had previously served. Low-income women in particular had less access to affordable birth control and thus had more babies, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

The new data on pregnancy-related deaths is too dramatic to be explained only by the budget cuts to women’s health, the study notes.

“In the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval, the doubling of a mortality rate within a two year period in a state with almost 400,000 annual births seems unlikely,” researchers write.

<snip>

read:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/womens-health-texas_us_57b5d949e4b034dc73260bf3?section=us_politics

[cali]

1. kick. Yeah, I know. Not about Trump.

[struggle4progress]

2. "Family planning: the Texas way"

[cali]

4. The Texan Republican way, to be precise

This just infuriates me. Women are dying because of these misogynistic fucks.

[Iggo]

3. That's some cold-blooded capitalism right there.

I have to believe they knew that would happen.

[cali]

5. It has nothing to do with capitalism.

It TRAP and the war on women.

[LWolf]

6. "has not come up with an explanation or solution."

too dramatic to be explained only by the budget cuts to women’s health, the study notes

It would be interesting to read the study.

[cali]

7. there's a link in the article.

[LWolf]

8. There is.

Somehow I didn't make it back up to the top of the page when I was clicking on links.

CONCLUSION: Despite the United Nations Millennium Development Goal for a 75% reduction in maternal mortality by 2015, the estimated maternal mortality rate for 48 states and Washington, DC, increased from 2000 to 2014; the international trend was in the opposite direction. There is a need to redouble efforts to prevent maternal deaths and improve maternity care for the 4 million U.S. women giving birth each year.

To be clear, that conclusion is for the study as a whole, not just for Texas.

The part specifically about Texas:

The Texas data are puzzling in that they show a modest increase in maternal mortality from 2000 to 2010 (slope 0.12) followed by a doubling within a 2-year period in the reported maternal mortality rate. In 2006, Texas revised its death certificate, including the addition of the U.S. standard pregnancy question, and also implemented an electronic death certificate. However, the 2006 changes did not appreciably affect the maternal mortality trend after adjustment, and the doubling in the rate occurred in 2011–2012. Texas cause-of-death data, like with data for most states, are coded at the National Center for Health Statistics, and this doubling in the rate was not found for other states. Communications with vital statistics personnel
in Texas and at the National Center for Health Statistics did not identify any data processing or coding changes that would account for this rapid increase. There were some changes in the provision of women’s health services in Texas from 2011 to 2015, including the closing of several women’s health clinics.26,27 Still, in the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval, the doubling of a mortality rate within a 2-year period in a state with almost 400,000 annual births seems unlikely. A future study will examine Texas data by race–ethnicity and detailed causes of death to better understand this unusual finding.

I guess there could be some debate over wording: "seems unlikely" vs "to be explained only by" in regards to the budget cuts; I wonder how far in the future that "future study" will be.

Meanwhile, it may not be the only factor, but I feel confident that cuts to women's health services will BE a factor.

[PufPuf23]

9. I hope that "lawmakers" in Texas connect the dots.

Planned Parenthood and associated women's health programs are good programs and necessary programs.

[Ace Rothstein]

10. Who would have thought this could happen?

I fucking loathe Republicans.