The voices of Ramah's children, crying

I read a disturbing report this week published by Amnesty International.
Entitled “Deadly Delivery,” the report said that two women in the United States die every day from pregnancy-related conditions.
It said that in spite of the fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world, that women in this country have more chance of dying from pregnancy-related complications than women in 40 other countries.
Of course, the statistics are worse for African American women, who are four times as likely to die from pregnancy related complications than white women.
In Columbus, the infant mortality rate is higher here than in several Third World countries. Nationally, the infant mortality rate for women in the United States is higher than it is in 24 industrialized countries.
Why is this the case in this, which has, up to now, been the most wealthy country in the world? A lot of it stems from the fact that too many women do not have health care. Half of the deaths that occur, both in pregnant women and their babies, are preventable, the report says, yet incidences have doubled since 1987, according to the Centers for Disease Control. (CDC)
The report says that 51 percent of all uninsured women are African American, and it says that even women who are insured are included in the deplorable statistics because their insurance does not cover pregnancy; it is classified as a pre-existing condition.
Women who are covered by insurance to have their babies, and thereby get effective prenatal care, are often handicapped after birth, as some insurance plans will cover only one post-partum visit. That means that if complications after birth occur, many women cannot get the care they need in time to correct the condition, and die.
If ever there was a cry for health care reform, this report supplies it. I would think that the Congress would be concerned about the health of the women who elect them, rather than with continuing to empower the insurance companies that are clearly out for profit at any cost, and at the expense of those who can least afford it.
The economy has made times hard for everyone, but it seems to me that with statistics like these, there need to be a lot more physicians willing to set up free clinics so that we can help our own. There ought to be a groundswell of protest from more than Tea Party advocates that something is very wrong with our health care system and something needs to change, in the name of the people.
Tea Party advocates are saying that health care reform, as being proposed by the Obama administration, is nothing more than socialism. I think not. I think it is justice. I think it is unjust that so many people in this nation cannot get the health care they need, while insurance companies continue to get wealthier and wealthier.
When Cain killed Abel, God said to Cain that his brother’s blood was in the soil that Cain wanted to plow, and said that because Cain killed Abel, the ground he tilled would be cursed and his crops would not grow. I keep thinking that the soil of America, saturated with the blood of people who have been wronged by this government, is crying out and that America will soon reap what she has sown. There is no reason why maternity and infant mortality rates ought to be as high as they are in a country which calls itself civilized.
Maybe America is not so civilized after all. Whatever America’s state, I am hoping that we, who love God and believe in justice, can get together and figure out how to help “the least of these,” because clearly, the government is not interested.
Have a good week.

Pastor Smith