Texas Leads Every Developed Country in Maternal Mortality

Do you know that Texas now leads the developed world in maternal deaths? Yup. Deaths have doubled since the attack on Planned Parenthood clinics, closing down the only source of maternal healthcare in poorer parts of Texas.

Mothers don't count apparently, because Republicans in Congress seek to close down Planned Parenthood facilities all over America. Many Democratic blue states like New York and California are committed to making up any federal deficit. But red states are ready to implement the Texas strategy with similar results to Texas.

Note that causality has not been established from a research standpoint, demonstrating that the closures of Planned Parenthood clinics in poor, rural areas of the state directly caused the doubling of maternal deaths. But most women's healthcare advocates argue that such an event can't be traced to any other change in the daily lives of Texas women.

Dudes, you have major blood on your hands. Don't you ever utter 'protecting life' to me again.

While America was glued to the former FBI Director James Comey hearings on Thursday, HHS Secretary Tom Price testified about a bill to repeal and replace the ACA (Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare) before the Senate healthcare panel.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked the committee’s chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), whether the panel would hold any hearings on the GOP’s proposal, catching Hatch by surprise. After conferring with an aide about how to respond, Hatch answered McCaskill, saying that he didn't know if there would be hearings on the still-secret legislation, being drafted by a committee of only white men. Suggesting that Democrats should have no quarrel with the process, the chair said that Democrats had been invited to "give your ideas" about the topic of healthcare reform.

McCaskill was livid:

“No, that’s not true, Mr. Chairman. Let me just say, I watched carefully all of the hearings that went on [when the Affordable Care Act was crafted]. I was not a member of this committee at the time, although I would have liked to be. [Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa] was the ranking member. Dozens of Republican amendments were offered and accepted in that hearing process.

“And when you say that you’re inviting us – and we heard you, Mr. Secretary, just say, ‘We’d love your support’ – for what? We don’t even know. We have no idea what’s being proposed. There’s a group of guys in a back room somewhere that are making these decisions. There were no hearings in the House.

“I mean, listen, this is hard to take. Because I know we made mistakes [when the ACA came together], Mr. Secretary. And one of the criticisms we got over and over again that the vote was partisan. Well you couldn’t have a more partisan exercise than what you’re engaged in right now. We’re not even going to have a hearing on a bill that impacts one-sixth of our economy. We’re not going to have an opportunity to offer a single amendment. It is all being done with an eye to try to get it by with 50 votes and the vice president.

“I am stunned that that’s what [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell] would call regular order, which he sanctimoniously said would be the order of the day when the Republicans took the Senate over. We are now so far from regular order that the newer members don’t even know what it looks like.”

A clip of McCaskill's spontaneous comments moved quickly to social media, causing writers like The New Republic's Brian Beutler to observe: “Like Obamacare or not, decent people should be furious about this. Not a word of what Claire McCaskill says here is hyperbolic or inaccurate. The reason Senator Orrin Hatch is acting like he’s been caught here is because he has. What Republicans are attempting to do to the health care system is the legislative equivalent of a mugging.”

There is no word to describe a group of conservative white men proposing to overhaul America's healthcare system with no input from other senators in open hearings -- except 'authoritarianism'. They haven't even invited Republican white women senators or the lone man of color Republican Sen. Tim Scott to serve on the committee. Maine Sen. Susan Collins has actually sponsored her own healthcare bill, but because she is adamant about protecting Planned Parenthood, she wasn't invited to participate in the committee proceedings which are determined to shut down Planned Parenthood.

The clandestine Senate Republican healthcare bill committee is operating in total secret, away from Democrats and Independents, all American citizens and any Republican senators who might disagree with their authoritarian plan for American healthcare, with a dramatic impact on women's rights to existing healthcare services.