Dem
51
GOP
49
There is a new study in this month's issue of JAMA Pediatrics, which is a child and adolescent health journal aimed at medical professionals. It reports that, in comparison to the 28 other states for which there is data, the number of newborn and infant deaths skyrocketed in Texas between 2018 and 2022.
Texas is the focal point of the study because the state found a fairly effective way to ban abortion even before Roe was overturned. So, the Lone Star State can serve as the case study, while the other 28 states serve as the control. And the finding is that infant death increased by almost 13 percent in Texas, as compared to 2% in the other states across the same timeframe, while the number of babies born with congenital defects who later died increased by 23%, as compared to a 3% decrease in the other states.
The study authors do not really delve into the question of why the disparity emerged, but it's not too hard to come up with a plausible theory. In most cases, it's not clear until well after 6 weeks that a fetus is not viable, or may not be viable. And in such cases, well, Texas law forbids intervention unless the mother's life is at risk. So, the mother is compelled to carry the pregnancy to completion, unless she has the means to travel to another state (and she is willing to risk running afoul of various Texas laws that try to stop women from doing that).
In what may seem like a non sequitur here, we are reminded what happened with gay marriage. There was a clear correlation between "I have met a gay person" and "I support gay marriage." As a result, the more out gay people there were, the higher the support for gay marriage became. And we know what eventually happened there, just a few scant years after "stop the gays from marrying" helped propel George W. Bush to victory in 2004.
Already, the anti-choice stance is the minority position. Heck, just yesterday, a poll of Indiana found that 58% of Hoosiers think their state's abortion law is too strict. And the more people who know an actual person who suffered due to these abortion laws—say, a woman who was forced to carry an unviable fetus to term—we have to presume the broader the opposition to the new abortion laws (and the politicians who support them) will become. (Z)