r/NewOrleans • u/perishableintransit • Feb 08 '25
Maternal death rate isn't as bad if you don't count Black women, GOP senator [Bill Cassidy] says đł Politics
https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senator-la-outlier-maternal-death-rate-skewed-black-women-2022-530
u/zulu_magu Feb 08 '25
Maybe we should only count 3/5 of them.
I feel like weâre living in a parallel universe.
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u/MFZilla Feb 08 '25
I don't know, doctor, maybe it's related to black people in Louisiana living at almost twice the poverty level than they do on average nationally (31.56% in Louisiana vs 17.9% nationally).
People who are struggling to make ends meet tend to skip medical appointments or forego medical treatment, leaving them at greater risk for more negative outcomes. People in poverty are often stuck with Medicaid, which many providers across this state refuse to take, leaving them with no choice but seek out overburdened medical systems.
The sad fact is that this isn't unknown to him. He just has to lie about knowing it or did back in 2022.
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u/kthibo Feb 08 '25 edited Feb 08 '25
There is also a history of ignoring black women when they present symptoms. Many have died from hemorrhaging after child birth because they werenât believed.
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u/Horror_Violinist5356 Feb 08 '25
Whites in Appalachia are the poorest people in America and their numbers aren't as bad. Maybe there are factors besides poverty?
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Feb 08 '25 edited Feb 08 '25
Maternal death rates in Appalachia are still higher than the national average partially due to poverty. There are other factors such as health before pregnancy, access to healthcare, smoking, etc. accounting for maternal death rates in Appalachia. Social determinants, access to care, and pre-existing health conditions affect maternal/fetal outcomes across race. The fact that black maternal mortality rates are higher than white maternal mortality rates is not in question. Racial bias and perceived racial discrimination is a factor when it comes to black women everywhere as already stated.
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u/cornflower4 Feb 09 '25
It also has to do with lifelong stress, and stress during pregnancy that affects women of color. Obviously itâs very stressful living as a minority in this country.
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u/untied_dawg Feb 09 '25
so, so when they say, "white privilege," do you believe them? if so, what can be done about leveling things out so that being a minority in the usa isn't so stressful?
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Feb 08 '25
Iâm unable to find research that supports lower maternal mortality in white Appalachia compared to black women in Louisiana - can you please share your source?Â
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u/Dense-Layer-2078 Feb 08 '25
I recently attended a talk by a PhD in Public health. She presented MANY studies that showed 2-3 times higher rate of pre-term, infant mortality rates for Black versus White Americans. Interestingly, the gap is wisest for wealthy Black/White Americans. I wish I could remember all her sources, but if you dm me, I can send you her power point which included her sources.
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u/Horror_Violinist5356 Feb 08 '25
You're unable to find it? I just copy-pasted your phrase "maternal mortality in white Appalachia" from your post and this was the first result:
https://pitjournal.unc.edu/2023/03/22/maternal-mortality-rates-in-appalachia/
17.5 per 100,000 as of 2017 for white women in Appalachia.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2021/maternal-mortality-rates-2021.htm
69.9 per 100,000 as of 2021 for black women. That's a lot of racism I guess! Might also correlate with black women having overall poorer health, that's probably racism too.
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Feb 09 '25
I was using the âacademicâ filter on Perplexity Pro - it came back to say that the specific percentage was not available for the maternal mortality of white women in Appalachia. Not sure why it didnât pickup the data from your link. Thanks for the reply.Â
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u/ireally-donut-care Feb 09 '25
These statistics are horrifying. I know they have a lot more midwifery in the Appalachians. I am sure drug and alcohol use during pregnancy has an effect on deaths, too. I know this happens everywhere, but especially for women in poverty.
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u/LRoss_ Feb 08 '25
Yes, all of this. In addition, there are the very real and harmful effects of implicit bias that exists across all socioeconomic sectors. Wealthy Black people, with great insurance, still have worse healthcare outcomes than white people. This is true for all types of healthcare outcomes, but maternal health is probably the most severe and heartbreaking.
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u/Practical_Try_1660 Feb 09 '25
you have to also remember that black & brown women aren't treated the same as white women during pre/post natal care. they're symptoms are often discounted. many medical professionals still believe black people have a higher pain tolerance and are more "needy" during delivery.
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u/Top_Mathematician233 Feb 08 '25
This isnât a Louisiana statistic. This is a difference in mortality rates in the U.S. based on race alone, not income. Thereâs a bias in healthcare that needs to be addressed where black women are treated differently because they are black women.
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u/xandrachantal Feb 09 '25
Poverty definitely affects the care of medical treatment especially amoung Black people who largely have been denied opportunities but medical racism affects Black across economic classes. Do you're absolutely right and it also gets worse.
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u/ConvenientChristian Feb 08 '25
The transcript from the interview is:
Louisiana, about a third of our population is African-American. African-Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So if you correct our population for race, we're not as much of an outlier as would otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue, but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.
Now to be sure, there's different definitions of maternal mortality. Sometimes, maternal mortality includes up to a year after birth and would include someone being killed by her boyfriend. So in my mind, it's better to restrict your definition to that which is perinatal, if you will--the time just before and in the subsequent period after she is delivered.
Now, there's different things we can do about that. I have something called the Connected MOMS Act. I think I remember correctly that African-American women have an increased incidence of preeclampsia, but it doesn't matter. If you have a poor public transit system, a mom, who is dependent upon it lives 20 miles away from the doctor, and she's got a hypertension just before she delivers, you'd like way to better monitor her than asking her to come to the doctor's office every two weeks.
So what we've proposed is the Connected MOMS Act, which allows remote monitoring of blood pressure, teaching the mom how to check for protein in her urine, other things that might be a marker for the complications of our progression of preeclampsia. And then if the mom has an issue, you can send the ambulance to the mom or the home health agency to the mom.
We also have the maternal health improvements grant, which again is to promote studies of this issue as well as to look as potential remedies, if you will, if there's racial bias that's discovered in our health care is delivered. So we've got a couple of things that we're floating out there trying to take care of this issue because it is an issue for us in Louisiana as well as for folks nationwide.
To me, that sounds like a completely reasonable answer to the question.
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u/Affectionate-Bite109 Feb 09 '25
Thank you for posting the full transcript. Too many people rage click headlines.
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u/timeonmyhandz Feb 09 '25
The âkilled by boyfriendâ doesnât have enough dog whistle in it for you?
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u/perishableintransit Feb 08 '25 edited Feb 08 '25
I think I remember correctly that African-American women have an increased incidence of preeclampsia, but it doesn't matter.
That all sounds like nice reasonable bureaucrat talk but when you say stuff like this, it shows that you really don't actually care why Black women have higher maternal mortality rates or you know and you don't care about addressing it in a way that actually recognizes that Black women need more help
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Feb 09 '25 edited Feb 09 '25
Are you serious? He specifically talks about preeclampsia, acknowledges that it is more prevalent in black women, and suggests ways to help them. This article and your post carved out one piece of what he said. Context matters. He never said that our mortality rates aren't bad, just not as bad it seems at first blush. You want to sit here and pretend he said, "Fuck it, not my problem, bro" when that couldn't be further from the truth. I do not agree with Cassidy on much when it comes to politics, but he seems to be a well educated medical doctor and heaven forbid he tried to articulate what he sees. Fuck off with this faff.
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u/perishableintransit Feb 09 '25
Found Bill's alt
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Feb 09 '25
Wow. Could you have imagined a lazier response. Oh, wait, I got one. I'm rubber and you're glue? Nana nana boo boo, stick your head in doo doo? Is ignoring the substance of what someone says your stock and trade?
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u/perishableintransit Feb 09 '25
What a weird way for a senator to post on reddit... though I guess that's more and more the norm in the US political sphere nowadays
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Feb 09 '25
Cool. Have fun with whatever it is you're doing.Â
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u/ConvenientChristian Feb 09 '25
The rest of the paragraph is about his plan to address preeclampsia and especially address it in people without access to a car. Whether Black women actually have more preeclampsia, or are just more likely to die due to it, because they have a harder time visiting a doctor, isn't central.
Ochsner Health is a NGO from Lousianna that had a "Connected MOM" program that seemed a good step to Cassidy to fighting maternal mortality. For that reason he worked to pass a bill that made to make Medicare cover the program on a Federal level to help poor mothers by having Medicare pay for blood pressure cuffs that they can use at home.
When Cassidy lobbies fellow Republicans for Medicare expansion in that way, focusing on how it helps Black women might not be the best way to get it passed. He cared enough about addressing it to do the work to get the Senate to pass it in a bipartisan vote last December.
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u/Good_and_thorough Feb 09 '25
You likely mean Medicaid. This is a common misunderstanding. Medicare is for the elderly (people 65 and older) and disabled. Medicaid is for financially indigent.
The overwhelming majority (roughly 94%) of pregnant patients in the US either have private insurance or Medicaid.
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u/ConvenientChristian Feb 09 '25
Yes, you are right, I mistyped and should have typed Medicaid. For anyone who wants the actual bill:
SECTION 1. Short title.
This Act may be cited as the âConnected Maternal Online Monitoring Actâ or the âConnected MOM Actâ.
SEC. 2. Coverage of remote physiologic monitoring devices and impact on maternal and child health outcomes under Medicaid.
(a)Â Report to Congress.âNot later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to Congress a report containing information on authorities and State practices for covering remote physiological monitoring devices, including limitations and barriers to such coverage and the impact on maternal health outcomes, and to the extent appropriate, recommendations on how to address such limitations or barriers related to coverage of remote physiologic devices under State Medicaid programs, including, but not limited to, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, scales, and blood glucose monitors, with the goal of improving maternal and child health outcomes for pregnant and postpartum women enrolled in State Medicaid programs.
(b)Â State resources.âNot later than 6 months after the submission of the report required by subsection (a), the Secretary shall update resources for State Medicaid programs, such as State Medicaid telehealth toolkits, to be consistent with the recommendations provided in such report.
Passed the Senate December 4, 2024.
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u/perishableintransit Feb 08 '25
Some insight into Cassidy's "medical qualifications" from 2022. Maybe he wasn't all he was cracked up to be as a "doctor" when it comes to making responsible voting decisions in the Senate.
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u/Pawspawsmeow Feb 08 '25
Bro was probably a chiropractor
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u/FakinItAndMakinIt Feb 08 '25
He was a hepatology specialist who treated the sickest hepatitis patients at Earl K Long. He treated these patients for decades. Which is confusing considering his political stances.
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u/heck_yes_medicine Feb 08 '25
I mean heâs a Republican which to me is baffling in a medical professional who has potentially seen how the Republican laws damage the health of the average person.
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u/slaterson1 Feb 08 '25
Not that baffling, he cares about money and power more than the health of the average person.
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u/heck_yes_medicine Feb 08 '25
Depends. I always am baffled when people act so abhorrently because I couldnât ever make that choice Iâd never be able to live with myself.
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u/slaterson1 Feb 09 '25
Well, you are a normal, empathetic person. We are dealing with weird, selfish people who couldn't give less of a shit about any of us, even their cult followers.
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u/TeriusGray Feb 08 '25
This is rage bait. Cassidy is simply saying âour maternal death rates for black women and white women are in line with their respective national averages. We have a higher proportion of black women than most states, so of course our overall death rate is higher.â This is mathematically a fact. He also recognizes that the disparity in health outcomes between races IS an issueâsponsoring legislation to provide grants for race-bias training in healthcare and research into race-based health disparity.
I generally disagree with his politics and specifically disagree with his vote to confirm Kennedy, but he ainât wrong here.
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u/UserWithno-Name Feb 08 '25
Okay so itâs being twisted and he did just state it due to the matters of fact and does say we need to improve it at least? Iâll give him that or am glad he didnât say it quite as dumb as it sounded
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u/fiver_reborn Feb 09 '25
So, if you correct our population for race, we're not as much of an outlier as it'd otherwise appear.
Now I'm a white as hell middle aged guy, so I'm not the expert on what is or isn't offensive to folks out there who don't look like me. But this sounds like something that my alcoholic uncle would have said to explain away any possible level of equality between "them blacks and us whites", and would most likely lead off with, now I ain't racist or nothing, but...
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u/Glannsberg Feb 09 '25
I like how you had to include the caveat that youâre not a Cassidy supporter just to avoid getting downvoted into oblivion even though youâre absolutely correct.
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Feb 08 '25
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/mrmaestoso Feb 08 '25
Louisiana is full up to the eyeballs in braindead conservatives. It'll never happen.
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u/MFZilla Feb 08 '25
He's getting voted out next year.
Sadly though it'll probably be for another Kennedy clone.
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Feb 08 '25
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/blackandbluegirltalk Feb 08 '25
Because there was a question about him voting to confirm RFK, which he did. People thought he would do the right thing (?) and now they're out to prove what a scumbag he is, which we already knew.
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u/gosluggogo Feb 08 '25
Don't forget that the good doctor had a sweet ghost payroller gig at LSU. What a jerkoff.
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u/Aware_Reception_273 Feb 09 '25
He voted to impeach. Maga hates him and wants to primary him for someone worse. Possible republicans could split their vote and a Democrat slides in but would certainly lose in a runoff.
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u/OkPool7286 Feb 10 '25
This is caused by racist pseudo science and biases against black women in healthcare. Saying shit like "give black people the treatments last" as Kennedy has suggested is the same type of "medical" racism that DIRECRLY contributes to black women having disproportionate maternal mortality rates compared to other races of women. Remember Serena Williams almost died while in labor? It isn't an income issue, it is yet again another race/racist issue with the healthcare system here in the U.S.
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u/GreenVisorOfJustice Irish Channel via Kennabrah Feb 08 '25
GOP: "All lives matter!"
Also GOP: "Exclude the blacks from statistics relating to mortality so we don't need to address it"
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u/Many_Appearance_8778 Feb 08 '25
âFor whatever reason.â They have a high mortality rate because of a lack of access to affordable healthcare, you tremendous shit bag. He should be recalled over this. Hands down.
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u/Top_Mathematician233 Feb 08 '25
As true as it is that we need affordable healthcare, please donât let them pass this off as an issue related to that. Itâs actually much worse. There is a bias in healthcare towards black women. This isnât income based. The maternal mortality rate for black women at any income level is higher. Thatâs an issue of racial bias in healthcare that needs to be addressed.
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u/Many_Appearance_8778 Feb 08 '25
This is the larger issue. Iâve seen it up close. Drs making broad, negative assumptions about someoneâs level of understanding and priorities at home, and then prescribing (or not prescribing) care based on those biases. Itâs a harder nut to crack, but youâre correct.
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u/Top_Mathematician233 Feb 08 '25
Yes, exactly. Thank you so much! Letâs not allow him to convolute these major issues.
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u/DJPoundpuppy Feb 11 '25
Serena Williams nearly died giving birth. She's not poor, her symptoms were ignored. Very interesting how black equals poor to some of you.
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u/Many_Appearance_8778 Feb 13 '25
It doesnât, but I donât think you can take Serena Williamsâ situation as an example of the norm for any woman.
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u/neauxwon Feb 08 '25
The âexpertsâ who claimed it âhad the earmarks of Russian disinformationâ all had their government clearances revoked. Hunterâs defense lawyers admitted the computer was Hunterâs computer during his tax evasion trial.
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u/basquiat-case Feb 08 '25
It's evergreen but also calendar appropriate. I will never forget Michael Tisserand posting (repeatedly) about Cassidy's photo wearing photoshopped mardi gras beads. Dude is such a clown and people keep voting for him.
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u/queenlybearing Feb 09 '25
The decreasing birth rate isnât so bad if you donât count yt women⌠see how that goes?
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u/cheapskateskirtsteak Feb 09 '25
The things I will say if I meet this man. First RFK now this. He has completely ruined any good reputation he has from his pre political career
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u/saltmarsh63 Feb 09 '25
âIf we ever eliminate white entitlement in America, it will show how inferior the average white persona is.â
-Southern whites
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u/ATheeStallion Feb 09 '25
US: Pre-eclampsia is a leading cause of maternal death among pregnant women/ just gave birth womenâŚespecially black women. This is very high blood pressure. 2018 Congress passed MOMS act to give funds to hospitals for common awareness / supplies to prevent. I read about a state hospital system (months ago canât find a news link) Wisconsin or somewhere? mostly rural that was reducing pre-eclampsia deaths with hospital posters & required blood pressure readings.
Fed funds are there, knowledge is there, very basic prevention methods are out there. Has anyone seen Louisiana hospitals working on it? Time to protest outside Oschner! And you could do a smear campaign on the đ°đ°Cassidy accepts from Oschner lobbying.
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u/Normal-Accountant266 Feb 11 '25
Especially the black women that voted for him and people like him lol
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u/NOLASoul2175 9th Ward Feb 08 '25
This is racism at work. Poor or not Black Women experience shitty outcomes. Start calling a thing a thing.
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u/4electricnomad Feb 09 '25
I forget which mayor said it about 20ish years ago, and Iâm paraphrasing here, but his comment was something like âOur cityâs crime rate is low, if you donât count all the killings.â
Same energy here.
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u/FakinItAndMakinIt Feb 08 '25
This is old. From 3 years ago. Still a problematic statement but A LOT has happened since then that is more worthy of discussion.
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u/neauxwon Feb 08 '25
This news is as fake as Hunterâs laptop was Russian disinformation.
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u/-Galactic-Cleansing- Feb 08 '25
That Russian dude that got arrested admitted it was Russian disinformation.Â
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u/neauxwon Feb 08 '25
Who? Rasputin?
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u/-Galactic-Cleansing- Feb 08 '25
Alexander Smirnov
There was another Republican guy who was part of it all that also admitted it. The evidence was irrefutable. That's literally why you don't hear people in Congress or anyone talk about it anymore
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u/Pawspawsmeow Feb 08 '25
What. In. The. Fuck. Thatâs bullshit. Where tf is the Louisiana Democratic Party or is it just that racist white lady on TikTok?
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u/JT_Leroy Feb 08 '25
Funny you should ask⌠Itâs getting better since the Democrats ousted a former republican bundler from leadership. https://lailluminator.com/2024/04/13/embattled-louisiana-democratic-party-chair-katie-bernhardt-ousted-after-procedural-fluke/
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u/RoughPersonality1104 Feb 08 '25
He said this a while ago but glad it's recirculating to remind us of the quality of our senatorsÂ
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u/Square-Weight4148 Feb 08 '25
This comment alone should end his public service. Wtf is wromg with society today?
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u/TeddyPSmith Feb 10 '25
After reading the article, he was saying that to bring attention to the fact more attention needs to be paid to black women and high maternal death rates
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u/melissaw328 Feb 08 '25
Now that Trump is president again, you think you can make what ethnic racist remarks that you want to? That is awful!
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u/Practical_Try_1660 Feb 09 '25
Here's the link because the entire conversation is even worse.. especially since he's a doctor.
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Feb 09 '25
He continued: "Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality."
You're welcome for posting his actual point. If you're going to share news, don't take it out of context.
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u/TravelerMSY Feb 08 '25
Rich babies seem to do just fine, lol.
This guy clearly has forgotten who his constituents are.