Health & Politics!

So when I saw this my first thought in today's politically charged environment my first thought was... Democrat states vs. Republican states! Why do they keep voting Republican?

Yeah the article is two years old but the health facts are still the same.

2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care

Common Wealth Fund.

July 18, 2024

Scorecard Highlights

• Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island top the rankings for the 2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care, which is based on 32 measures of health care access, quality, and health outcomes. The lowest performers were Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, and Oklahoma.
• Deaths from all causes among women of reproductive age — 15 to 44 — were highest in southeastern states. Causes of death include pregnancy and other preventable causes such as substance use, COVID-19, and treatable chronic conditions.
• The highest maternal death rates were in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Vermont, California, and Connecticut had the lowest rates. Nationally, rates were highest for Black and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women.
• Mental health conditions are the most frequently reported cause of preventable pregnancy-related death, including deaths by suicide and overdoses related to substance use disorders. States that screened for postpartum depression at the highest rates also had lowest rates of postpartum depression.
• Among women of reproductive age (ages 15–44), those in Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma were uninsured at the highest rates; those in Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and Vermont had the lowest uninsured rates. Women in states that had not expanded Medicaid eligibility were among those most at risk of lacking coverage.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022 has significantly altered both access to reproductive health care services and how providers are able to treat pregnancy complications in the 21 states that ban or restrict abortion access.

Take a look at the states with the best and the worst. Do you see a trend here?

Tighter limits and additional bans on abortion are certain to drive more maternal and reproductive health care providers to shut down or leave their states, deepening the crisis of access to maternity care. Abortion bans threaten American’s future access to care across all medical specialties; in fact, since 2022, medical residency applications in states with bans have declined by more than those in other states.8

Women’s access to contraception and infertility treatments is also at risk. In February 2024, Alabama’s supreme court gave stored embryos the same legal protections as children. This ruling disrupted the care of women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in Alabama until the state’s governor signed legislation in March providing civil and criminal immunity to IVF providers. In some states, widespread misinformation and misunderstanding could also lead policymakers to place limits on contraception in the new landscape created by the Dobbs decision.9

Clearly, women’s health is under threat. That’s why the Commonwealth Fund has developed the first-ever state scorecard to track trends in women’s health over time and document how policy choices and judicial decisions may impact women’s access to timely health care.

Politics pays a big part in our health!