The nation’s infant mortality rate is 6.9 deaths per 1000 births. The nation’s capitol, Washington, DC, has an infant mortality rate of 11.42. The rate among blacks stands at 13.25. NPR reports that the rates down South are increasing. Why?”Nobody wants to take care of poor children, whether they are black or white or whatever color,” says Oleta Fitzgerald, Southern regional director for the Children’s Defense Fund. Nobody wants to take care of poor children in the heart of the nation’s bible belt. Nobody wants to take care of poor children in our so-called Christian nation. Nobody wants to take care of poor children. Got it. Not even Medicaid helps for the poor and rural pregnant women and their children born with low birth weight and more likely to be born prematurely or stillborn. The article linked to in the title to this posting says that a lot of doctors in rural areas will not take Medicaid.There is a solution. There is something you can do right now. Support H.R. 676 and provide women and children in poverty with medical care. H.R. 676 is a single payer health insurance bill sponsored by Rep. John Conyers. This is a single payer and not a single provider proposal. Socialism? Well yea. So what? The Congressmen and women who will be voting on this bill all receive Socialized Medicine provided by our taxes. The military and veterans all receive Socialized Medicine provided by our taxes. Your daddy and mommy, granddaddy and grandmama receive Socialized Medicine once they turn 65. So why can’t newborns of poor women. Remember, these children can not even live past their first birthday, little a lone make it all the damn way to 65 for Medicare.So do we want children to grow up by giving them a chance to at least get past their first birthday? Well then we will have to supply them and their mothers with medical care. And we are not doing that. I am most sick about living in a totally immoral Christian nation that actually promotes high infant mortality among the poorest in our country. (Remember, it is the Christians who keep harping on this being a Christian nation. I just like to stick it in their face when the Christians demonstrate their obviously anti-Christ policies.)For more information, see “SICKO” next week.Peter Nuhn
Look at the majority of people.
Since when is “more people” supposed to be a moral ideal?
This is where I come unglued on issues, the poor. I can only speak for the typical Texan but these SOB would rather pay 5% less in taxes than improve our education system or decrease the percentage of uninsured Texas children. They usually have a great excuse too, like they need a new F-350 or a fishing boat.
And the word sociali sm makes them rear back as they link that to big government instead of coordinated effort to make sure all citizens have basic humans needs. And the real sad part is some of these Texans think that bringing a kid into bad conditions will “learn them parents to make better choices”. Thanks Dave, as much as I get irritated by selfish people I love to get this stuff out in the air to expose the greed of my fellow Texans. (The word sociali sm contains ciali* and that is bad word on the naughty list)
When are we going to stop kidding ourselves and move on to full-out sociali$m. Democratic government with a sociali$tic economy isn’t necessarily an oxymoron just because Truman threw a hissy fit about it being so. Why every American I’ve ever met seems to think otherwise is beyond me. It worked well for Tony Blair.
We already know our current system is trash when it comes to decision-making and providing for the people, so we shouldn’t be so brainwashed into thinking we’re #1 to start trying new things.
gee pete. hope i’m not being dense here, but “christian nation”? ain’t the situation you’ve described here precicely what a christian nation does “because” it “is” a christian nation????
TX,
“I can only speak for the typical Texan but these SOB would rather pay 5% less in taxes than improve our education system or decrease the percentage of uninsured Texas children.”
It’s the same in Alabama. Everyone’s excuse is that THEIR kid is in private school, so why should they give a shit for the ones in public school? That kind of thinking is why art programs got cut a lot while I was in school, yet the football teams always managed to afford new equipment every year, along with the cheerleaders. And it always sickens me how the hospitals are so christian that they have to save each and every pre-mature baby, even if it is far too pre-mature and survival meant a life-time of suffering and treatment and therapy and bills that the broke-ass parents couldn’t possibly afford (which, of course, no one is willing to help them out with). Yes, they should try to save pre-mature babies, but there is a point where they just CANNOT survive (at least not without VERY severe disabilities, perhaps severe brain damage) and all the efforts to save them are only bringing false hope and higher bills to the parents.
The most recent figures I have seen about Cuba, from 2006, give it a 5.3 rate, significantly lower than in the U.S.
Those atheistic soc_ialists are such a pain in the ass to make xian capitalist America look bad.
I am not a doctor or a scientist but you may want to take a look at this article in Slate, which suggests that the U.S.’s infant mortality rate may be due to too many fertility treatments, too many doctors, and even too much money:
http://www.slate.com/id/2161899?nav=tap3
Another factor that isn’t mentioned are parents who go full-term with kids that can’t be sustained. A friend of the family had a fetus that the doctor said that “for all intents and purposes does not possess brain matter” and the couple, who are very religious, went the full nine months, had a funeral and everything. I don’t know whether that would be counted towards infant mortality and if in a more religious society like ours if that would happen more often than in other developed countries.
And I’ll chime in and say I’m not a fan of socialized medicine or increased government. To quote John Fogerty entirely out of context, “And when you ask them, ‘How much should we give?’ oh they only answer ‘More, more, more.’”
who says the poor have a right to have children.and there is no right to have children out of wedlock.state gov’t needs to earn its keep an crack down on these people.we are headed for chaos by people who think they can do whatever they want and have the taxpayer pick up the tab.