Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), also the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, had some strong language to give to attendees of “a progressive training session on Friday” last week, insisting that “the [Democratic] party needs to triumph at the ballot box for the sake of women’s health,” according to a report in The Hill.
Ellison cited maternal mortality rates in Missouri and Texas as proof that only Democrats can save women from literally dying.
“‘Women are dying because we are losing elections,’ Ellison said. ‘We don’t have the right to lose a damn election. We have to win. We have to win'” [emphasis added].
The Hill makes mention of the fact that rural areas in the U.S., including those in the state of Missouri, do suffer from a lack of access to quality healthcare for pregnant women.
The write-up in The Hill does not, however, delve too deeply into the Congressman’s mention of Texas. Why?
In 2016, a Texas study that made alarming claims about high maternal mortality in the state was seized upon by pro-choice activists and the far left in order to sing the praises of Planned Parenthood and to demonize pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, as well as Republican legislators engaged in a full-on “war on women.”
We now know that study relied on bad data and the number of deaths in Texas was only half that claimed.
Researchers are still searching for the cause of the higher mortality rate in the U.S. Some point to obesity and diabetes as a growing factor. The New York Times asked Dr. William Callaghan of the CDC for insight in a 2016 article:
“Most people imagine maternal mortality as 19th-century-style deaths such as hemorrhage in childbirth or death from eclampsia, a condition involving high blood pressure. Those types of deaths still happen, but their rate has not changed much.
“Instead, the increase in recent years has been driven by heart problems and other chronic medical conditions, like diabetes, which has increased sharply in the population. Researchers have theorized that an increase in obesity — particularly acute among poor black women, who have much higher rates of maternal mortality than whites — may be contributing to the problem.
“‘The really scary thing to us is all the deaths from cardiovascular disease and heart failure,’ said Dr. William Callaghan, who runs the Maternal and Infant Health Branch in the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ‘It’s a quarter of all deaths. There were almost none in the remote past.'”
It’s a shame some Democrats are spouting inaccurate claims and inflaming their rhetoric to the utmost degree instead of bringing constructive analysis to the table. Until they do, it appears winning more seats in the 2018 midterm elections is their real top priority.
