Idaho is far from alone in cratering maternity care and doctors fear it will worsen our maternal mortality crisis

A man is suing three women for wrongful death, alleging they helped his now ex-wife end her pregnancy

At the end of this month, an Idaho labor and delivery unit will shutter its doors. It’s not exactly an anomaly; it’s the third such closure in the state following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which triggered laws in the state that criminalize physicians who provide abortion care and make access to the procedure impossible.

As of April 1, 2024, West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, Idaho, will no longer deliver infants. According to a statement on the hospital’s website, the closure was an outcome the institution “worked for years to avoid.” While West Valley Medical Center didn’t cite restrictive abortion laws as the reason for the closure, Dr. Kara Cadwallader, who is a family medicine physician in Idaho, told Salon in a phone interview that providers feel as if their “hands are tied” and they can’t do their jobs in a state where abortion is completely banned (with only a narrow exception in which an abortion is “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman”) and where physicians face jail time for providing a standard part of care.

  • Narauko@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 months ago

    Minor correction: the Senate is 2 per state, so Wyoming’s 1 state has the same representation as California’s 1 state. The Senate is (supposed to be) the voice of the States in the Federal Government. The Senate wasn’t even supposed to be elected by popular vote, they were appointed/elected by their state governments until the 17th amendment. The change made senators into super-representatives, which changed power dynamics. Arguments can be made here for whether this was ultimately better or worse.

    The House of Representatives IS the voice of the people, and should be proportional to population size (but was artificially capped because the Feds complained it was getting too big so now Wyoming has more representational power per person than California). This needs to change because it’s only going to get worse going forward.

    With this breakdown, the Federal Government’s interests, State’s interests, and the People’s interests balance each other. These three bodies have vastly different focuses.