Yesterday HPPR reported on how pregnancy-related deaths in Texas doubled in the year after the state cut funding to women’s health programs. Now, as the Huffington Post reports, Texas is just an extreme snapshot of the United States’ bigger maternal mortality problem.
According to the World Health Organization, the United States is the only developed country in the world where maternal deaths increased between 1993 and 2013. This puts the US in the company of other countries with rising maternal death rates—like Afghanistan, Botswana and Chad.
Rachel Ward, managing director of research at Amnesty International U.S., blamed the rise on “systemic problems of failing to provide affordable, accessible, quality health services to all women.”
That doesn’t mean Texas is off the hook, though. As The Guardian is reporting, Texas now has a higher pregnancy-related death rate than any country in the developed world.