Abortion ruling means more and riskier births in Mississippi
Mississippi expects 5,000 more births each year as a result of the Supreme Court ruling denying abortion rights
GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — In Mississippi, where health officials expect 5,000 more births each year as a result of the Supreme Court ruling upending abortion rights, children are more likely to die before their first birthday than in any other state.
Mississippi has the nation's highest fetal mortality rate, highest infant mortality rate, highest pre-term birth rate and is in the top decile of states in maternal mortality. Black mothers are nearly three times more likely to die due to childbirth than Mississippi’s white women.
As the state’s Republican leaders led the legal fight against abortion, Gov. Tate Reeves said he would do everything in his power to make Mississippi the “safest state in the nation for an unborn child.”
But access to pre- and post-natal care has dwindled in Mississippi since the June ruling, making childbirth even more dangerous for poor women and children. The only neonatal intensive care unit in the state's impoverished Delta region closed in July under financial pressures, moving lifesaving care for ill or premature newborn babies about two hours away by car.
