schemingreader

Apparently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a press release on May 15 on a new policy to prevent birth defects, low birth weight and infant mortality. Healthcare providers to women of childbearing age should encourage them to consider themselves in a perpetual state of "pre-pregnancy." The Washington Post in an article sarcastically entitled "Forever Pregnant" reported on this as what it is: a public health initiative to bring down the shamefully high infant mortality rate in the United States.

Many people on my flist, including framlingem, liseuse and xochiquetzl, noted that they, like many women, have no intention of getting pregnant. Xochi quoted a friend saying "woman=flowerpot!" framlingem worried that under this directive, women might lose their access to necessary medications. She directed my attention to this heartbreakingly frustrating post by a woman whose neurologist refuses to prescribe necessary medications on the grounds that they could harm a potential fetus. (Just click it for details, she's very eloquent.)

I should say that as upsetting as this writer's story is, I don't think this directive from the CDC is intended to change the way doctors prescribe meds. No, it's something less frightening but more infuriating: an attempt to blame individual women's "bad habits" for the lack of a healthcare system or social safety net in the US.

Of course, the CDC directive has no force whatever in determining how doctors and other healthcare providers will actually treat their patients. I know this is hard for people from civilized countries countries with universal health insurance to understand. The CDC doesn't actually pay for our healthcare. We have to get insurance from our employers, or, failing that, purchase our own insurance, or our own healthcare on a piecemeal basis. If we can't afford that, there are some state-run healthcare programs for low-income people, but not all of these programs have sufficient funding to reach all uninsured people in each state.

This is a typical Bush administration public health initiative in that it merely adds insult to injury. The insult is clear; the CDC wants to encourage women to be healthy so that they can have healthy children. As though the worth of a woman's life is as a vessel for reproduction. Just to be CLEAR.

The injury is the above-board policy of denying women access to necessary healthcare information about reproductive issues. (Yes, that's a link to Glamour Magazine. No, I can't believe that they were the ones to report this!) The injury is the federal cuts to the already inadequate Medicare and Medicaid programs, which are administered at the state level.

The CDC knows that the "personal responsibility" approach that they are taking with this insane, pro-natalist press-release is not going to work. Look at what they themselves say about the infant mortality rate in the US. They know that it falls heavily on low income women and women of color. They know that these women lack access to basic health care.

The Bush Administration has a great "personal responsibility" approach to this problem, too. Check out Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day. (Who names these Bushco programs? I really want to know!)

Hey, these women might even lack access to basic nutrition. Yes, we have the Food Stamp Program. The State of California just passed a bill called the Food Stamp Enrollment Program, to enroll the two million Californians who are low income enough to be eligible for the program but who aren't enrolled. Now why do you think that is? Do you think those people get adequately nutritious food? This isn't the first state to set up such a program. In New Jersey and in Massachusetts, workers were found to be deliberately turning away eligible people.

Do you start to understand why we have a high infant mortality rate?

(I am too busy right now to look up all the ways that the Bush Administration has increased toxins in the environment and the workplace. You can take that as read. Or add your own links.)

Yes, this is one of the more disgusting things to come out of Bush stacking panels at CDC. It's just like being in a fascist state, or Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu. Women are vessels for reproduction, we get that.

But since public health utterances are meaningless without an actual healthcare system in place, it's just another symbol of the low esteem of the Bush Administration for women. All right: their low esteem for women, for people of color, for science, and for human life in general. They are so incredibly cynical about things!

So in essence friends: you are right to be outraged. I just want your outrage to be sufficiently comprehensive.