{"id":290395,"date":"2023-05-04T18:35:56","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T23:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=290395"},"modified":"2023-05-04T08:42:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:42:33","slug":"women-better-access-maternity-care-not-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/women-better-access-maternity-care-not-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"What women need is better access to maternity care, not abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the fall of Roe v. Wade<\/em>, abortion advocates have bemoaned the supposed lack of abortion access across the country, insisting it means women are at danger. Yet while maternal mortality is a real issue in the United States, the answer isn’t abortion \u2014 it’s ensuring that women have better access to maternity health care.<\/p>\n

Abortion deserts<\/h3>\n

OB\/GYN residency has remained competitive<\/a>, but there were slightly fewer applications in pro-life states. Lucy Brown, a medical student at Indiana University, told ABC News<\/a> that pro-abortion states were at the top of her list. “I really, really wanted to stay in the Midwest. I wanted to be close to my family, but it kind of conflicted with my No. 1 priority,” she said, adding that she couldn’t see herself moving back to Indiana once her residency is completed.<\/p>\n

“I would find it very, very, very difficult to go back, as much as I want to. It would be really a tragedy for me to not be able to provide the full scope of reproductive care and have to go day by day and send people up to Chicago, or wherever, and not be able to do it myself,” Brown said. “My goal was to end up in Indiana, or at least around Indiana, but I don’t know if that’s going to be a safe or realistic option anymore.”<\/p>\n

Adriana Traub, a medical student at Emory University in Georgia, echoed similar sentiments. “Personally, I want to receive an education, if I go into OB-GYN, where I can learn how to provide abortion care services, and be able to also provide all options to my patients without being worried about losing my medical license \u2014 without being worried about having to tell a patient ‘no,'” she said. She reiterated that pro-life laws made her want to become an OB\/GYN even more. “There is such a great need for it,” she added.<\/p>\n

Areas where there aren’t many abortion facilities have been dubbed “abortion deserts<\/a>,” meaning women have to travel 100 miles or more<\/a> to get an abortion. And numerous abortion advocates claim<\/a> that a lack of access to abortion will increase maternal mortality rates… and that women need abortion<\/a> for their own reasons.<\/p>\n

\"Walgreens<\/a><\/p>\n

Maternity care deserts<\/h3>\n

Yet the larger issue is not abortion; abortion does not lower<\/a> maternal mortality rates. Across the globe<\/a>, statistics have found that legalized abortion has no positive impact on maternal mortality, and in some cases, even makes it worse.<\/p>\n

In recent months, news outlets have tried to blame<\/a> pro-life laws for things like hospital closures<\/a>. Pro-abortion writer Danielle Campoamor insinuated<\/a> in a piece for TODAY that an Idaho maternity ward closure was linked to the state’s pro-life laws… though the hospital’s statement made it clear that the real reason was low patient volume<\/em>, which meant they couldn’t attract permanent pediatricians.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to lifesaving care, women don’t need more abortionists \u2014 they need more access to maternity care, something that is dwindling across the country. A 2022 report<\/a> from the March of Dimes found that 36% of all counties are considered maternity care deserts, and “access to maternity care is diminishing in places where it\u2019s needed most, impacting nearly seven million American women of childbearing age and roughly 500,000 babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2023 article published in the JAMA Health Forum<\/a> also noted the issue of maternity deserts, and gave a list of policy recommendations. None of them involved abortion; instead, they recommended investing more into growing the workforce, building more community-based services, and ensuring there is adequate health coverage for births.<\/p>\n

Dr. Elizabeth Cherot, chief medical officer for the March of Dimes, told ABC News<\/a> last month that the issue of maternity deserts is contributing to the high maternal mortality rate in the United States.<\/p>\n

Rachael Morris, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, also explained that her team is working to address the issue by training first responders on how to handle pregnancy-related emergencies. “We teach you how to intubate a baby. We teach you how to deliver a baby,” she said, adding that 90% of maternal mortalities over the past two years were preventable. “It’s frightening. Something’s got to change.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University Medical Center, recently testified before a Senate committee<\/a>, stating that\u00a0\u201cThe solution to maternal mortality \u2014 and I\u2019ve been working in this area globally and in the United States for many years \u2014 is to improve health care, health education, and to increase support to pregnant women. Abortion does nothing to address any of those issues.\u201d She added that the “main causes of maternal mortality…\u00a0are deaths from cardiovascular causes, infection, and embolism and so on and so forth. Abortion will not reduce those deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dr. Monique Chireau: Abortion does not reduce maternal mortality pic.twitter.com\/JGbmzZQ9es<\/a><\/p>\n

— Live Action News (@LiveActionNews) April 26, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n