The mortality rate for black mothers is about three times higher than those of white mothers and Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren knows why. While speaking at Texas Southern University, a historically black college, she stated the following:
“The best studies that I’ve seen put it down to just one thing: prejudice. Doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way as they hear the same things from white women.”
In other words, Senator Warren believes that that we doctors and nurses deliberately give black patients inferior care. Let’s look at the stats.
According to both the United Health Foundation and the World Health Organization, the maternal death rate per 100,000 is for 47 for blacks, 18 for whites and 38 for American Indians. To put this in perspective, the rate in 1900 was 900 (there is no data on different races at this time), so overall, the situation has improved tremendously for all women since the dawn of modern medicine.
But let’s take a look at an interesting chart on maternal mortality from the state of North Carolina.
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Notice that in 1999, the mortality rate for black mothers was 39 while that of white mothers was 11. But a trend developed in which by 2013, the rates for both races were almost identical. Hmmm. Using Senator Warren’s analysis, let’s postulate some theories.
Perhaps the doctors and nurses started listening to both black and white patients equally. Perhaps the doctors and nurses decided that the 1999 numbers were unacceptable and decided to ignore white patients’ complaints while listening more carefully to black patients. Maybe the doctors and nurses became rap fans and started treating black patients better because they worshiped Dr. Dre. I think Senator Warren would go with the Dr. Dre theory.
But there is also another possibility. Maybe the opioid epidemic disproportionately destroyed the health of poor rural white women while a larger percentage of black women avoided this scourge. Pregnant women addicted to opioids have a higher risk of complications.
And maybe, differences in pre-existing conditions, socio-economic status and access to private health insurance between blacks and whites is the real reason for differences in maternal mortality rates – not racist doctors and nurses. Black women have a higher incidence of hypertension and heart disease than white women. And black women are far more likely to be on government programs such as Medicaid, which does not cover pre-natal care as well as private insurance. But the Senator has no sensible plans for solving these problems. It is much easier to say that the doctors and nurses are racists.
What is ironic is that Senator Warren didn’t mention the high maternal mortality rate among American Indians. Whatever happened to professional courtesy? At 38, it is almost as high as those of blacks and much higher than whites. Senator Warren is the only tenured Harvard Law School professor to have attended a public university. How did this happen? Because she convinced this snooty institution that she is an American Indian!
If I were a Democrat, I would definitely be a Warren fan. Who better to beat Donald Trump? It’s one thing to sucker people into taking out $30,000 home equity loans to learn how to sell real estate at Trump University. But to be a blonde- haired, blue- eyed Caucasian and use affirmative action to become a Harvard law professor, US Senator and viable presidential candidate worshiped by the liberal media and Hollywood – that is pure genius. Nothing Donald Trump ever did is even in the same ball park. Who better to beat a con man than a better con woman – especially one who is willing to call doctors and nurses racists to further her political career? Elizabeth Warren is a true tribute to our political class and if the Democrats don’t nominate her, they are out of their collective minds.