Rural America’s Maternal-Health Crisis Is About to Get Much Worse
Care will be in shorter supply, travel distances will stretch farther, and high-risk situations will more likely result in tragedy. Read more at The Atlantic
rural communities
How ‘defund Planned Parenthood’ came to threaten primary care in rural Maine
On Oct. 1, the organization let patients know they would be ending primary care services at the end of the month at three clinics in the far reaches of the state: Houlton, Presque Isle and Ellsworth. That change affected nearly 1,000 patients, including patients on Medicaid and those with private insurance. Read more at National … Read more
For many rural women, finding maternity care outweighs abortion access concerns
The push to preserve and expand abortion access in states where it’s protected often collides with ideological and health care divides between urban and rural residents. Read more at 19th News
Missouri voters could undo their state’s abortion ban. Making abortion accessible is a different story.
But even if the measure passes, abortion will likely remain limited in the immediate and near future, thanks to that complex maze of anti-abortion restrictions that chipped away at abortion availability for so many years. ….. The fear she felt — the one that left her unable to tell her doctor or trust a hospital … Read more
Maternity units are closing across America, forcing expectant mothers to hit the road
Data released last fall by the infant and maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes also shows that more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age across 1,119 US counties are living in “maternity care deserts,” meaning their counties have no hospitals offering obstetric care, no birth centers and no obstetric providers. Read more at CNN … Read more