Echoing this - the stats are beyond alarming, but I’d exercise caution is assigning causality at this point. It could very well be attributable to bad data or changes in reporting data definitions. The rate for the US as a whole has risen back to 1969 levels after leveling off at an historic low in the early 80’s through the mid-90’s. As cited in this Time article, there have been many changes since then, including increases in cesarean sections, higher obesity levels, women having children later and record keeping changes. As for Texas in specific, the article says:
Not helping is the fact that Texas won’t release the data behind the numbers, which seems stupid considering how damning the numbers are. You can’t fix what you can’t identify.
Keep in mind that Texas has one of the largest illegal alien headcounts around. Those people are afraid to get medical care for fear that they will be arrested and deported. As a result, when they have issues, they pretty much wait until someone is really screwed up before they see a medic. I would imagine that the numbers are badly skewed for that reason.
There’s a lot to be concerned about but those two aren’t supported by your cite. In fact they aren’t accurate. If you look at UNICEFf’s page on Maternal Mortality Rates Texas is still much better than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean. Dig down into the spreadsheet data at the bottom of the page and Mexico is also worse in 2014 at an MMR of 45 (although they have been improving with 2015 MMR of 38 that still trails Texas).
There’s plenty to be upset about. Factually inaccurate and hyberbolic comparisons distract from the real issue of significant movement the wrong way IMO.
It’s not just Texas advancing in this category. The entire U.S. except California, has seen an increase in maternal mortality while other developed countries see declines. (* To ensure statistical significance, stats are quoted only for the two large states and the 50 states as a whole.)
Here’s the journal article. They are planning a follow-on study to understand the sudden jump in Texas maternal mortality in 2011.
More Texan women vote than men, but it’s mostly old women. The 65+ group votes at more than twice the rate of the 25-34 group, and at more than three times the rate of the 18-24 group.
What part of “I would imagine” did you have trouble understanding? That was a statement of opinion, based on the fact that I live in the state and am aware of the problems that we have with illegals.
But while we are at it, let’s take it a step further. You’ve jumped on the liberal bandwagon about how evil Texas is because the state defunded Planned Parenthood, without even considering the fact that the maternal mortality rates increased nationwide. In addition, the rate is not as drastic as was made out by the scaremongering tactics employed.
It turns out that Texas did not have a big spike in maternal deaths due to Planned Parenthood clinic closings, Medicaid spending limits or butthead Republicans in the state legislature. In fact, it didn’t have such a death spike at all - it was the result of goofs in coding/reporting maternal deaths.
*"Of the 147 maternal deaths that were originally identified, state researchers determined only 47 were actually pregnancy-related.
They also examined medical records for female fatalities that were not included in the original number and identified nine additional deaths.
These results bring the state’s total maternal mortality rate for 2012 down from 38.4 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births to 14.6 maternal deaths. That’s lower than the national average, which is 15.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."*
Much as Dopers love to take a good crap on Texas for largely political reasons (sometimes deservedly so), this was not an appropriate instance. A big helping of crow casserole is in order.
thanks for the update.
Given the hyper sensitive nature of what little discourse remains in this country, smart people need to be very careful to know the facts.
This helps.
Since none of the stats are pointing at definitively the cause and effect why ask him for a cite and not one of the other posters who similarly and with great moral outrage are jumping to different conclusions?
I didn’t see this last year, but it’s not true - there’s a PP clinic not far from where I work and live, and it’s been there for longer than this thread has existed. I don’t know if their services include abortions.
By the way it’s at Hwy 75 and Plano Pkwy in Plano.
