Pro-Life

WHYY, NPR out of Philadelphia, gave the world “Fresh Air”. I believe that Terri Gross is the best interviewer I’ve ever heard along with fellow NPR personality Steve Inskeep. Both Terri and Steve allow the interviewee to speak (and occasionally contradict themselves). Steve Inskeep caused Donald Trump to hang up on him in embarrassment.

New Jersey is across the river from Philly, so WHYY’s newscasts cover the Garden State. An NJ State Health Department survey determined that 90% of pregnancy-related deaths there were preventable. This compared to 85% nationally.

I nearly drove off the road when I heard that.

First of all, New Jersey isn’t exactly Montana where “wide open spaces” lead to miles and miles between hospitals and medical care. Prenatal check-ups are certainly more accessible for someone living in Newark than they are for a woman living on a reservation in South Dakota. Yet statistics would indicate otherwise.

Second (and more important), if Republicans are truly “pro-life” (as they all claim to be) how about expanding prenatal care to eliminate preventable pregnancy deaths? Once a baby is born, the GOP has never supported affordable child care, pre-school, or even decent public education, but every Republican running in 2022 just loves the unborn. Why not save a mother suffering from preeclampsia along with her unborn child?

Cynics would contend that the New Jersey statistics indicate that even when prenatal care is available, some women refuse it. Hospitals cannot turn away a woman complaining of preeclampsia. On the other hand, a pregnant woman cannot leave her job and kids to wait in a hospital ER for hours either.

Costa Rica, of all places, has a solution. Its death rate due to pregnancy, diabetes, and the many other medical problems that can be mitigated by preventative care plummeted when medical students visited every home on a regular basis for a quick check-up with simple blood tests, blood pressure readings, etc. It was great training for the students. People who would otherwise receive no medical care conveniently got it.

Everyone is pro-life. Everyone would support convenient, cost-free prenatal care. If Costa Rica can do it, so can New Jersey.

By Ed Dufton