Abortion activists continue to attempt to undermine Texas’ pro-life values. Recently, an article in a peer-reviewed journal blamed a 2011-2012 maternal mortality increase on Texas’s defunding of Planned Parenthood. The “original research” contains several problems, however, in which the researchers mislead to fit their pro-abortion agenda. Planned Parenthood wasn’t even defunded until January 2013 in Texas due to being tied up in litigation, as The Radiance Foundation’s Ryan Bomberger pointed out.
There’s more, with Bomberger’s original emphasis…
Apparently, the researchers did some adjusting of their own. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), maternal mortality rates have been alarmingly increasing for years. That “modest increase” lead researcher Marian MacDorman imagines, was a huge increase. In 2000, the MMR was 10.5 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births (equating to 30 tragic deaths). By 2009, this rate had nearly tripled to 28.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births (resulting in 116 deaths). That’s a “modest increase”? In 2010, the MMR actually decreased to 24.6.
Then, MacDorman et al claimed: “Texas had a sudden increase in 2011-2012.” If by sudden they mean over ten years of significant increases…sure. They completely ignored the fact that from 2010 to 2011, the MMR rose from 24.6 to 30.7 (an increase of about 25%). From 2011 to 2012, the increase was only 3%, rising to a rate of 31.6…not doubling…!
Here’s the clincher. Texas’ MMR dropped in 2014 in rate and total maternal deaths. Neither the “peer-reviewed” study nor any of the leftists in the news media mention this.
Going back to Planned Parenthood, Bomberger also reminds that President Obama withheld $30 million in Medicaid to punish Texas, adding:
…But none of this makes a good headline for pro-abortion, pro-Planned Parenthood news activists. CNN joined in the distortion, adding: “Maternal Deaths Fall Across Globe but Rise in US, Doubling in Texas.” Global maternal mortality reporting is inaccurate and misleading. Even the World Health Organization admits that “the identification and classification of causes of death during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium remain inconsistent across countries.”
Bomberger wasn’t the only one to expose the research. According to Snopes.com, the claim that “[t]he maternal death rate in Texas has spiked in recent years due to funding cuts for reproductive health clinics” is marked “unproven.” Under what’s “false,” it’s noted that “[r]esearchers did not demonstrate a direct correlation between reproductive health laws in Texas and the maternal mortality rate.”
Media outlets still ran with such findings, including Slate and CNN, which Bomberger cites. Other outlets take on a similarly political take to blame Texas, including The Guardian and The Huffington Post.
Promotion of the study even came from a blog post at What to Expect, which is supposed to focus on pregnancy and parenting tips, not Planned Parenthood. At least the post admits that “it’s hard to nail down exactly why trends are on the rise in the U.S.” but their title misleads the reader before a word of the article itself is read. This small admission makes it even more unnecessary to mention Planned Parenthood closures and quote the abortion giant.
“… [E]very mom and baby deserves easy access to maternal care,” the post closes. Pro-lifers agree, and that’s why Planned Parenthood shouldn’t even be mentioned, since maternal care is one of the last things Planned Parenthood offers pregnant women.
