The U.S. has the highest rate of maternal deaths of any developed country, and it continues to increase, with 2021 about 40% higher than 2020 and 60% higher than 2019. The unjust profit-driven healthcare system is to blame for the fact that about 6.9 million women have little or no access to maternal health care, a crime against all women. U.S. racism and its discriminatory healthcare mean Black and Indigenous women have the highest rates of maternal death.
Data from 2021, the most recent available, shows the overall death rate increased to 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with rates of 20.1 in 2019 and 23.8 in 2020. In 2021, the rate for Black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is almost three times the rate for white women, at 26.6 per 100,000. The data includes pregnancy-related deaths before, during and after pregnancy, with about half occurring between 7 days to 1-year after.
The unconscionable lack of healthcare for all means the vast majority of deaths were preventable, 80% according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). For Indigenous and Alaska Native people, 93% of pregnancy-related deaths were preventable. The leading underlying causes of death during pregnancy or the postpartum period were: mental health conditions, including suicide and overdose or poisoning related to a substance use disorder (23%); excessive bleeding (14%); cardiac and coronary conditions (13%). The leading underlying cause for Black women was cardiac and coronary conditions.
The fact that the large majority of deaths are preventable and the far higher death rates for Black and Indigenous women shows that this is genocide, the intentional killing of Black and Indigenous women by a racist and inhuman healthcare system.
Leave a Reply