Gaetana Drake: Blame Texas legislators for deaths of 600 young women

Texas slashed funding to reproductive centers across the state in 2011, cutting $73 million from a budget of $111 million for the reproductive health service. This budget cut resulted in 80 clinics closing their doors. Texas closed Planned Parenthood clinics whether they provided abortion services or not. The state didn’t care that those clinics provided many other health care/pregnancy related services to low-income women.

So what was the result in this decrease of funding and closing of clinics? Texas now has the highest maternal mortality rate, not only in the U.S. but in the developed world! According to the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, this is unheard of when there were no special circumstances, i.e. “in the absence of war, natural disaster or economic upheaval.”

From 2000 to 2010, the mortality rate was from 16 to 17 deaths per 100,000 births. After the budget cuts, it jumped to 33 to 35 deaths per 100,000 births. The war on women and Planned Parenthood has resulted in the deaths of more than 600 women in Texas. Lives that could have been saved. Shameful. Funding has been restored, but it’s too late for those 600 young women, isn’t it?

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Gaetana Drake: Blame Texas legislators for deaths of 600 young women."