Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
LOUISIANA SENATOR BILL CASSIDY: OUR MATERNAL DEATH RATES ARE ONLY BAD IF YOU COUNT BLACK WOMEN
YES HE SAID THAT:
Senator Bill Cassidy on the state of Louisiana having one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation:
"We wouldn't be much of an outlier if you subtract the African American population from our numbers."
Link to tweet
?s=20&t=tjkGjUWWWQoKflpFQu9fnw
In an interview with Politico, the following words came out of Cassidy’s mouth: “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/bill-cassidy-maternal-mortality-rates
*********
UPDATED TO ADD:
Study Finds Many Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Louisiana Could Have Been Prevented
A new analysis finds black women are more likely than white women to suffer a preventable death during or after pregnancy.
By Gaby Galvin
Jan. 9, 2020, at 5:00 p.m.
A new analysis found that over a six-year span, more than half of pregnancy-related deaths among black women in Louisiana may have been preventable.
Between 2011 and 2016, at least 47 new moms died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth in Louisiana, according to a state review first published in 2018. Black women were 4.1 times as likely as white women to die while pregnant or within 42 days of childbirth, from complications like blood loss, cardiomyopathy and heart disease. At the time, the state said 45% of all pregnancy-related deaths were preventable.
The new report breaks out exactly whose deaths may have been prevented: 19 black women and one white woman, representing 59% of all pregnancy-related deaths among black women and 9% among white women. The study, published this week in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, is among the first to examine how much of the racial disparity in maternal mortality is driven by potentially preventable deaths.
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-01-09/in-louisiana-more-pregnancy-related-deaths-are-preventable-among-black-women
A new analysis finds black women are more likely than white women to suffer a preventable death during or after pregnancy.
By Gaby Galvin
Jan. 9, 2020, at 5:00 p.m.
A new analysis found that over a six-year span, more than half of pregnancy-related deaths among black women in Louisiana may have been preventable.
Between 2011 and 2016, at least 47 new moms died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth in Louisiana, according to a state review first published in 2018. Black women were 4.1 times as likely as white women to die while pregnant or within 42 days of childbirth, from complications like blood loss, cardiomyopathy and heart disease. At the time, the state said 45% of all pregnancy-related deaths were preventable.
The new report breaks out exactly whose deaths may have been prevented: 19 black women and one white woman, representing 59% of all pregnancy-related deaths among black women and 9% among white women. The study, published this week in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, is among the first to examine how much of the racial disparity in maternal mortality is driven by potentially preventable deaths.
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-01-09/in-louisiana-more-pregnancy-related-deaths-are-preventable-among-black-women
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/LA
56 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Isn't that what Hilter had in mind?
Rocknation
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy: Our maternal mortality rates are only bad if you count black women
“If you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/bill-cassidy-maternal-mortality-rates
As conservatives across the country wage war on reproductive rights, demanding by law that women be forced to carry any pregnancy to term, regardless of the circumstances, they frequently (slash always) like to forget that they do absolutely nothing to support these people during said pregnancies or after. Mississippi, for example, where abortion will immediately become illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned, has the highest rate of child poverty in the country and recently rejected a bid to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. And in Louisiana, which has a similar trigger law that will go into effect upon Roe being reversed, maternal mortality rates are among the worst in the nation. But according to GOP senator Bill Cassidy, the rate at which women die during pregnancy or shortly after is not as bad as it seems—if you subtract the deaths of Black women, which apparently don’t count.
In an interview with Politico, the following words came out of Cassidy’s mouth: “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s start with the idea that Cassidy—who wants to defund Planned Parenthood is all, Yes, on its face, our maternal mortality rates are abysmal, but if you only count white women, they’re not that bad! Then there’s the phrase “for whatever reason.” In fact, there is one very big reason in particular— perhaps you can take a guess? “It’s no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women,” Michelle Williams, the dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health said in response. “They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias.” As Politico notes, Black mothers are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white mothers in the U.S., which has the worst mortality rate among developed nations and where “17 mothers die for every 100,000 pregnancies in the country.” In Louisiana, Black mothers are four times as likely to die than white mothers.
Asked what how Roe v. Wade being overturned would affect maternal mortality rates, Cassidy dismissed the question. “If we’re using abortion to limit maternal deaths, that’s kind of an odd way to approach the problem,” he said. That, of course, is total bullshit. As NBC News reported earlier this month, “Research suggests the bans and restrictions would have manifold effects on maternal health. For one, if more pregnant people can’t get the abortions they seek, they’d shoulder the risk of the U.S.’s relatively high—and rising—rate of death from pregnancy-related causes, which is particularly elevated among people of color.” As Dr. Amy Addante, an ob-gyn in Illinois, bluntly put it: “There are going to be women that will die from pregnancy because of this decision, period.”
snip
“If you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/05/bill-cassidy-maternal-mortality-rates
As conservatives across the country wage war on reproductive rights, demanding by law that women be forced to carry any pregnancy to term, regardless of the circumstances, they frequently (slash always) like to forget that they do absolutely nothing to support these people during said pregnancies or after. Mississippi, for example, where abortion will immediately become illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned, has the highest rate of child poverty in the country and recently rejected a bid to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. And in Louisiana, which has a similar trigger law that will go into effect upon Roe being reversed, maternal mortality rates are among the worst in the nation. But according to GOP senator Bill Cassidy, the rate at which women die during pregnancy or shortly after is not as bad as it seems—if you subtract the deaths of Black women, which apparently don’t count.
In an interview with Politico, the following words came out of Cassidy’s mouth: “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s start with the idea that Cassidy—who wants to defund Planned Parenthood is all, Yes, on its face, our maternal mortality rates are abysmal, but if you only count white women, they’re not that bad! Then there’s the phrase “for whatever reason.” In fact, there is one very big reason in particular— perhaps you can take a guess? “It’s no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women,” Michelle Williams, the dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health said in response. “They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias.” As Politico notes, Black mothers are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white mothers in the U.S., which has the worst mortality rate among developed nations and where “17 mothers die for every 100,000 pregnancies in the country.” In Louisiana, Black mothers are four times as likely to die than white mothers.
Link to tweet
Asked what how Roe v. Wade being overturned would affect maternal mortality rates, Cassidy dismissed the question. “If we’re using abortion to limit maternal deaths, that’s kind of an odd way to approach the problem,” he said. That, of course, is total bullshit. As NBC News reported earlier this month, “Research suggests the bans and restrictions would have manifold effects on maternal health. For one, if more pregnant people can’t get the abortions they seek, they’d shoulder the risk of the U.S.’s relatively high—and rising—rate of death from pregnancy-related causes, which is particularly elevated among people of color.” As Dr. Amy Addante, an ob-gyn in Illinois, bluntly put it: “There are going to be women that will die from pregnancy because of this decision, period.”
snip
to their overt racism. If you asked Cassidy I'm sure he'd tell you he isn't a racist. 
Just like Tucker Carlson saying he isn't a racist, or the things he says on TV aren't racist.
They can't see it because they're looking through the eyes of a lifelong racist. They don't include minorities as part of their set. They're not human beings, they're something else entirely. They don't see that as racist though because they're totally blind to their racism.
They're impossible, and they'll never change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-fifths_Compromise
Comments like this will probably gain votes among the David Duke constituency in Louisiana.
You mean because you really don't consider them "people" in the traditional sense enough to include them in the numbers you use to determine if it's a problem or not.
Because by ignoring the problem that makes it so much easier to sweep under the rug and say nothing to see here.
