USA – Abortion bans are barring people from life-saving pregnancy care, medical groups warn

In a report shared first with The 19th, major medical organizations uniformly told lawmakers that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will also worsen racial inequality and create barriers to critical medical treatment.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
November 1, 2022

Major medical groups say that the loss of federal abortion protections has diminished access to pregnancy care such as treatment for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. The groups are sounding the alarm that racial gaps in pregnancy-related deaths will be exacerbated, according to a new Senate report first shared with The 19th.

The analysis comes on the heels of preliminary data suggesting that in the first two months since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — a case that eliminated federal abortion rights and opened the door for states to ban abortions entirely — abortions fell by about 6 percent, or about 10,000 abortions, across the country.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2022/11/abortion-bans-restrict-critical-pregnancy-care-senate-report/

USA – How Abortion Access Can Save Women From Violence

In America, pregnancy is a uniquely violent and sometimes deadly time. Abortion can be a lifeline.

Caroline Orr Bueno
December 15, 2021

There was a particularly revealing exchange at the Supreme Court last week, during arguments over Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, in a case with grave implications for abortion rights nationwide. Justice Amy Coney Barrett brought up safe haven laws—which allow babies to be surrendered for adoption shortly after birth without criminal penalties—and suggested that abortion is no longer necessary since women can just give up their babies for adoption. If abortion rights advocates are concerned about the burdens of forced motherhood, Barrett asked, “Why don’t the safe haven laws take care of that problem?”

Barrett’s comments reflect complete disregard for the ordeal of pregnancy itself and the impact of making people endure an unwanted pregnancy.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/164711/abortion-bans-violence-against-women

Study shows an abortion ban may lead to a 21% increase in pregnancy-related deaths

September 22, 2021
Amanda Jean Stevenson, The Conversation

A new Texas law bans nearly all abortions, and other states have indicated that they likely will follow suit. But the research is clear that people who want abortions but are unable to get them can suffer a slew of negative consequences for their health and well-being.

As a researcher who measures the effects of contraception and abortion policy on people’s lives, I usually have to wait years for the data to roll in. But sometimes anticipating a policy’s effects before they happen can suggest ways to avoid its worst consequences.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/study-shows-an-abortion-ban-may-lead-to-a-21-increase-in-pregnancy-related-deaths-167610

Nigeria – Women should not die of pregnancy-related diseases: Prevention (1)

Women should not die of pregnancy-related diseases: Prevention (1)

Posted By: Dr Joel Akande
On: November 23, 2018

In reading this article, kindly project a picture as if every woman is your daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt or friend. By so doing, you place yourself in the position of victims or relatives of victims of the issue that we are going to discuss in this article: maternal mortality. The matter of women dying of pregnancy-related diseases should not happen and all efforts by all stakeholders (government at all levels, women themselves, families, nurses, physicians and the nation in general) should be geared toward the prevention of maternal (and child) deaths.

Every year in Nigeria, several thousands of women die of diseases related to pregnancy. Specifically, as at 2015 which is when the latest figures were made available, about 814 of women for every 100,000 of live births die in Nigeria every year. Nigeria is in the top tier where women and children die most in the world. This figure only relates to live births and does not include deaths of women that occur because of abortion whereby the expelled fetus was not alive at the time of the abortion.

Continued: http://thenationonlineng.net/women-not-die-pregnancy-related-diseases-prevention-1/

23.11.2018

pregnancy complications

pregnancy-related deaths

The Astonishing Numbers Behind the Republican Crusade Against Pregnant Women

The Astonishing Numbers Behind the Republican Crusade Against Pregnant Women
Alex Henderson
Jan 30, 2018
AlterNet, News & Politics

Forty-five years after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party and far-right Christian fundamentalists remain obsessed with ending safe and legal abortion in the United States. But their opposition to universal health care and attacks on everything from Medicare to school lunch programs demonstrate that their concern for human life ends once a baby is born. If the GOP and its evangelical base truly were pro-life, they might object to the fact the U.S. now has the highest maternal death rate in the developed world—a figure that is especially pronounced in Republican-dominated red states.

In 2016, The Lancet published the results of an international study on maternal mortality that found U.S. women were almost three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications as their counterparts in Germany or the U.K., and almost seven times as likely as women in Finland. According to the medical journal, maternal mortality in the U.S. increased from 16.9 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 26.4 per 100,000 live births in 2015.

Continued: https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/astonishing-numbers-behind-republican-crusade-against-pregnant-womenthe?amp

US maternal mortality highest among industrialized nations

US maternal mortality highest among industrialized nations
By Trévon Austin
25 August 2017

An estimated 700 to 900 women die in the US every year from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes, the highest rate among industrialized nations. Another 65,000 nearly die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A study released last week published in MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing indicates that postpartum nurses are not being properly educated on the dangers mothers face after giving birth. Lacking sufficient education, the nurses are unable to play the critical role in identifying potential warning signs of postpartum complications and taking precautionary measures.

Continued at source: World Socialist Web Site: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/25/post-a25.html