US Society: Motherhood and Apple Pie?

Republican all male caucus drawing up a health care bill.

Sean O'Torain.

We are familiar with the expression that something is as American as motherhood and apple Pie. The idea being that US society respects motherhood. Well consider these facts. (From the New York Times July 20th, 2017) An American woman is five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than a British woman. A woman in Texas is around ten times more likely to die from pregnancy than a woman in Spain or Sweden. The male dominated Republican Party outfit as part of its attack on Planned Parenthood has closed many women's health clinics in Texas. These people are monsters.

While in the US maternal mortality has increased in recent years, around the world maternal mortality has declined. The Organization For Economic Cooperation and Development is an organization made up of the 24 largest economies in the capitalist world. The US is a member.  Obstetrics and Gynecology is a medical journal. It states that the US ranks below every one of these 24 countries except Mexico in maternal mortality. So much for the US capitalist propaganda that the US is the greatest country in the world. It is certainly not for women. We need to think about this. Concretize this. The politicians and the economic and religious forces which determine the US health system are murderers. Yet most of these people and organizations claim to be pro life.

Then there is the issue of family planning. Almost half of pregnancies in America are unintended. Almost one third of American teenagers will become pregnant. Meanwhile the predator in chief in the White House to curry favor with his crazed right wing religious supporters, has cut $213 million in funding for teenage pregnancy prevention programs. It is not hard to see where this will lead. In Texas as they have closed many women's clinics the number of abortions has increased.

We must fight for full free at the point of use health care for all. This must include full free family planning care for all. Women must have the right to choose, to make decisions concerning what happens to their own bodies. A full free at the point of use health care system would be easy to pay for. First, take the profit out of all areas of health care including the pharmaceutical industry. Put the major sectors of the health care system under collective ownership. That is, nationalize it under the control of the heath care staff, the patients and working people. Second cut the military spending, the billions that go to the offense department, the department that invades and occupies and threatens other countries on behalf of the profit addicted corporations, and spend the money saved on health care. Third tax the rich, the millionaires and the billionaires and use the revenue from this for health care and other needs such as education.