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Chelsea Clinton’s is angry about how people seem to be ignoring the overwhelming evidence that maternal mortality rates have been increasing heavily in the US, and how she wants this to change.
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In a panel with NBC’s Kristen Welker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, per Today, Clinton said, “I am quite angry that we continue to ignore so much evidence about what works to save women’s lives.”
In a new report from the Maternal Medical Association, it shows maternal mortality rates have not only doubled in the US in the past two decades, but have decreased globally, and in 2021 alone, over 1,200 women died from maternal mortality rates (a 40 percent increase from the year prior).
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When asked what she believes the key contributing factors are to such high maternal mortality rates in the US, like “lack of access, education, or systemic racism?” The It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going author quickly said, “I choose D, all of the above. I think there’s a real comfort in the complacency of ‘ugh, it’s also complicated!’ [But] inertia is never an excuse to not save someone’s life.”
Along with Clinton, a doula named Chanel Porchia-Albert talked about how Black, Brown, and Indigenous women aren’t the primary focus in healthcare, and how that needs to change. (And if you need proof, Black, Brown, and Native American women are up to three times more likely to die compared to white women.)
Welker and Clinton chatted more outside the panel, talking about why the US has one of the worst rates in developed countries. “We’re not using our resources to the best of our abilities and to what we know works best in the US,” Clinton said. “Maternal health doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. I think oftentimes it is finding those places are real common ground Where maybe people didn’t even know there was a common ground.”
The CDC revealed over 80 percent of maternal mortality deaths are preventable, and after Roe v Wade was overturned, it’s only worsened.
Welker then ended the video discussing the possible solutions Clinton mentioned like better education about complications and the increased risks for women of color, using more doulas, and ensuring every pregnant person has an advocate with them throughout it all.
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