Alabama creates more maternity care deserts as labor units are shuttered

[Hazelelponi]

There is no accusation here, just the observation that pro-life is only concerned with abortions and their prevention, not with any other issue concerning the preservation of life.

Actually pro life people are usually involved in adoptions as well.

Pro-lifers are loosely a group of people who get together in a common interest of making sure young women who are in a situation know what their alternatives to abortion are, and working towards a more positive public policy in this regard.

They don't run hospitals as a group or anything, though a hospital owner or doctor might be "pro-life". I'm pro-life and was a nurse.

but being pro-life is just living what you believe. I don't live in Alabama and I am hearing about these hospital closures for the first time.

Though it honestly doesn't surprise me. Rural America, because it's largely white and poorer, resembles third world countries in terms of access to healthy food and medical care. They are completely ignored by everyone. Not even charities help them.

I've had Indian doctors tell me this, that we are in worse condition out here than any third world country he's seen. It's actually sad since we are the wealthiest nation on earth.

But many things can cause higher mortality rates in women, and in the modern day they almost always have to do with access to medical care and food - exactly what is missing from rural white America there in Alabama.

I've seen 18 year old boys out here in rural America look like men in their mid 30's due to poor nutrition (one in particular looked so old I was just shocked). Not having access to nutrition affects a lot, and when you couple that with a lack of access to medical care during a high risk pregnancy it's a recipe for disaster.

 

[BCP1928]

'Murica. The Duke of Alabama should be ashamed.

Alabama is ruled by a Duchess, not a Duke.

 

[Desk trauma]

Pro-life or pro-choice are short hand for general positions on one issue not all encompassing political ideologies. The side arguments about capital punishment, vaccination, foreign/military policy drag threads into the weeds never to return.

 

[Nithavela]

Pro-life or pro-choice are short hand for general positions on one issue not all encompassing political ideologies. The side arguments about capital punishment, vaccination, foreign/military policy drag threads into the weeds never to return.

While at the same time, any thread not about abortion, but only about one of those side arguments gets completely ignored.

 

[Hazelelponi]

While at the same time, any thread not about abortion, but only about one of those side arguments gets completely ignored.

They aren't ignored, we do understand there is a loss of public infrastructure in the internal mainland US, in some cases quite serious infrastructure neglect.

But these concerns are being covered under other areas of public policy - not abortion.

I'll fight for what's right for the American people any day of the week and I do. I am concerned about our crumbling infrastructure, absolutely and 100%, but it's nothing to do with abortion.

And these accusations that pro-life people don't care about our nations infrastructure is baseless and silly.

You act like somehow we should have the money to repair our nations infrastructure ourselves... I'd love to see that money tree but it's apparently going to Ukraine.

 

[Nithavela]

They aren't ignored[...]

Then why did not a single poster who champions pro life views on this forum deign to post in this thread after several months and updates, while threads about abortion subjects go to double digit page numbers as a matter of course?

 

[Hazelelponi]

Then why did not a single poster who champions pro life views on this forum deign to post in this thread after several months and updates, while threads about abortion subjects go to double digit page numbers as a matter of course?

I did when I saw the thread...

I'm pro life. I saw the thread, opened the thread, read the full article and commented.

Don't I count?

Are you upset that I didn't see the thread until now? Really?

 

[BCP1928]

They aren't ignored, we do understand there is a loss of public infrastructure in the internal mainland US, in some cases quite serious infrastructure neglect.

But these concerns are being covered under other areas of public policy - not abortion.

I'll fight for what's right for the American people any day of the week and I do. I am concerned about our crumbling infrastructure, absolutely and 100%, but it's nothing to do with abortion.

And these accusations that pro-life people don't care about our nations infrastructure is baseless and silly.

They just care more about abortion than they do about infrastructure.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

Fears rise as 3 maternity units prepare to close in Alabama

The state has one of the country’s highest maternal mortality rates. Now, three hospitals plan to stop delivering babies, putting some pregnant women at even higher risk.

www.nbcnews.com

>> By the end of the month, two Alabama hospitals will stop delivering babies. A third will follow suit a few weeks later.

That will leave two counties — Shelby and Monroe — without any birthing hospitals, and strip a predominantly Black neighborhood in Birmingham of a sought-after maternity unit.

fter that, pregnant women in Shelby County will have to travel at least 17 miles farther to reach a hospital with an OB-GYN. And because the county, one of Alabama’s largest, is bordered by another whose hospital also lacks an obstetrics unit, some of those residents are also losing the closest place they could go to deliver their babies.

“There’s a sense of dread knowing that there’s going to be families who are now not only driving to the county over, but driving through three counties,” said Honour McDaniel, director of maternal and infant health initiatives for the March of Dimes in Alabama.

People in Monroe County, meanwhile, could face drives between 35 to 100 miles to a labor and delivery department. <<

The culture of life strikes again.

>> The state has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country; only three others had higher rates between 2018 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alabama also had the nation’s third-highest infant mortality rate in 2021, the latest data available. <<

No, actually this has nothing to do with this decision or a culture of life.
It has to do with lawsuits.

In reality, these obstetric and maternity practices have been closing down for years, as many consider it too risky to stay in business or cannot acquire the insurance - even in far left states like California.

"These closures are among the latest in an accelerating trend: At least 46 California hospitals have shut down or indefinitely suspended labor and delivery since 2012, according to a CalMatters analysis of hospital records submitted to the state. This includes seven hospitals that closed entirely.
Twenty-seven of the maternity ward and hospital closures have taken place in the last three years."

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/areas-california-lose-maternity-care-hospitals-18507613.php

 

[iluvatar5150]

What do you think a pro life lobby even can do here?

Care. Care about something more than abortion. Realize that you have a lot of power to effect change that can help a lot of people, but that doing so requires abandoning your ridiculous fealty to inept “small government” ideology.

Killing children isn't the answer here, in case you thought it needed to be.

But conservatives don’t have any other solutions to offer, either.

Hospitals close in poor white rural America due to staffing shortages and suddenly it's the pro-life peoples fault why?

It’s their fault because they didn’t want to expand medicaid coverage to pay for these services that hospitals are otherwise giving away for free.

Do you think we should go through Alabama slaughtering babies because doctors don't find it advantageous to deliver prenatal and natal care to poor white women?

No, we should expand the health care coverage that “pro-lifers” have been obstructing for decades.

I think when the concerns of those in poverty are answered with "kill your offspring" that's advice you don't take and the people you don't listen to.

Many policies espoused by pro-lifers wind up with dead kids. They just take longer than abortion.

 

[Nithavela]

I did when I saw the thread...

I'm pro life. I saw the thread, opened the thread, read the full article and commented.

Don't I count?

Are you upset that I didn't see the thread until now? Really?

I'm not upset in general or with you.

As far as I can tell from your posting behaviour, you only jumped into the thread to defend pro-life people.

 

[Nithavela]

If you want to know what initially led me to being pro life I'll tell you.

I don't, actually.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I don't, actually.

Cool. Guess I wasn't the person you were interested in talking to.

I'll delete my post, since it's just me talking like I'm talking to a friend... Which isn't your interest here.

Good day.

 

[RileyG]

There is no accusation here, just the observation that pro-life is only concerned with abortions and their prevention, not with any other issue concerning the preservation of life. Your posting behaviour in this thread itself demonstrates this perfectly.

I'm sure that there are people who are pro-life and also want this problem to be solved. Some might even be able to think of solutions that don't involve "kill your offspring". I myself can think of three solutions from the top of my head.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

 

[Nithavela]

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

If you wanted to convince anyone otherwise, you could have adressed the contents of the news stories. It would have been more convincing than any number of repetitions of a single word.

 

[rjs330]

I think it's a shame. Maybe we ought to spend our money on these hospitals instead of sending it over seas or on the Department of Education or any number of other things we spend it on foolishly. Medicaid is a governmental healthcare program. And it's not doing enough. And people here think if they only expanded government healthcare it would be great. My meanwhile there are problems with government healthcare now. And think it could be fixed by having more of the same?

 

[o_mlly]

The culture of life strikes again.

Nonsense.

Did you check out the declining birth rates in the US since contraception and Plan B, aka, abortion, came into vogue? The economics of a drop in demand cause a response on the supply-side. No one with any business sense provides a service for which there is insufficient demand. Hospitals are a business. If the birth rate increases, then so will the supply of birthing centers increase.

 

[rjs330]

Nonsense.

Did you check out the declining birth rates in the US since contraception and Plan B, aka, abortion, came into vogue? The economics of a drop in demand cause a response on the supply-side. No one with any business sense provides a service for which there is insufficient demand. Hospitals are a business. If the birth rate increases, then so will the supply of birthing centers increase.

You do make an interesting point that fewer births may be adding to the problem. If you have fewer people giving birth there are fewer people going to the hospital and less of a need for birth centers. But I am curious as to the the actual numbers of births in those areas. How often did those centers have someone in there having a baby? That might also be an issue.

My wife works in the hospital and you wouldn't believe the amount of money they loose from people who don't pay their bills or insurance companies and Medicare who won't pay. A lot of the issues stem from the hospital itself with doctors and clinics not doing their paperwork thata needed to get the bills paid from the insurance or Medicare