By Lynda Kirkpatrick
After the Dobb’s decision that overturned Roe v Wade, our elected officials in Alabama were all over the media making promises to more funding for prenatal care and maternal access to health care. They promised that these babies, and their mothers, were going to be taken care of. Many of these mothers were neither financially or mentally capable of carrying these pregnancies to term. All of the religious zealots and churches who put up the good fight spent days harassing women in front of clinics and hounding politicians to make sure these babies were taken care of.
Here we are, two years later and mothers have even less access to healthcare in Alabama than before. Women from impoverished conditions have to drive over an hour to see a doctor and then wait weeks to receive the necessary care that they need. In 2024, maternity wards were closed in Alabama because there was little to no funding. This has left many Alabama counties without healthcare services. Knowing all of this, the Republican leaders in Alabama have continued to refuse to expand Medicaid. Expanding Medicare would have saved some if not all of the maternity care units all across the State. Those hit the hardest have been the dozens of rural hospitals that have closed over the past ten years due the the State leadership refusing to expand Medicaid.
Alabama is one of the top five most unhealthiest States in the nation. We have an infant mortality rate that is as bad as some third-world countries.
During the Obama Administration, the Affordable Care Act allowed states to expand Medicaid to cover people up to 138% of the Federal poverty line. The Federal government would cover most of the costs with the States paying a much smaller amount. Gov. Ivey, along with most of the Republican leadership, refused to expand Medicaid even though most of the people in Alabama, including Republicans, supported it. The expansion would have saved Alabama an average of $174 million in healthcare costs over six years. It would have lowered the barrier to physical well-being for those living in poverty, and improved Alabama’s record on cancer, heart disease, stroke, and infant mortality. As rural hospitals struggle to remain open, the Alabama leadership remains opposed to the expansion.
What have our lawmakers been doing about this broken promise that is causing infants to die in Alabama? They are not keeping that promise. Instead, they have been more concerned with taking books out of public libraries, talking trash about transgender kids, and taking taxpayer’s dollars from public schools to pay for rich kids to go to private schools. They chose to spend billions on a new prison and told us, the taxpayers, that the money wasn’t there for Medicaid expansion.
The truth lies within the lack of political courage for the Republican leadership to step up and do what needs to be done. Expanding Medicaid is not a popular subject among the right-wing base in this State to save the lives of babies, however, they will rant with their last breath against abortion rights.
During one of Donald Trump’s many accusations, he made the statement that “liberals were killing babies after they were born alive.” The Democrats and many news outlets pressed Trump on this and NONE could be proven. This was written off as just another one of Trump’s many delusional mistruths to incite anger in the people. As it turns out, this may not be exactly untrue. Intentionally turning a blind eye to the known suffering of mothers and their newborn infants and leaving them to die without providing the necessary healthcare is far from the “pro-life” idea that the religious pundits and far right-wing voices have said.
According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, Alabama saw a dramatic increase in infant mortality with 449 newborns dying before reaching their first birthday. This is due to the lack of access to the healthcare needed to prevent these unnecessary fatalities. The ban on abortion in this state with the forced birth mandate and the closing of hospitals that have put limitations on access to prenatal medical care for poor families have contributed to this tragic outcome.
As we watch to see what happens after January 2025, there is a large risk that Trump will carry out his threat to abolish the Affordable Care Act which will put millions without health care. Pre-existing illness will no longer be covered by insurance. This will only create more serious health problems for Americans who cannot afford private insurance. It will also increase the number of infant deaths. Those who have cancer and diabetes will be at risk to have access to life-saving drugs.
Instead of worrying about which book your child reads, we should be more focused on making sure the child reaches the age to learn how to read.
Lynda Kirkpatrick
Marion County Democratic Party Chair
HD 16 Representative State Democratic Executive Committee