The staff at Monroe County Hospital in Alabama said goodbye and played Brahms' "Lullaby" on the labor and delivery ward's final day.

At 6:58 a.m. Thursday, Dr. Angela Adams Powell addressed the nurses at the south Alabama hospital where she had delivered babies for more than 25 years.

“I was afraid I might not be able to speak,” she said, her voice breaking, “and I might not.”

In two minutes, the labor and delivery department at Monroe County Hospital would shutter, leaving the community without a birthing hospital. In two minutes, pregnant women in a county where 22% of residents live below the poverty line would be forced to travel 35 to 103 miles for the next nearest option.

…

Liz Kirby, Monroe County Hospital’s CEO, said a physician shortage was behind the closing. After the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, some hospitals in states with strict abortion bans have warned that it could become harder to recruit OB-GYNs, though Kirby said she wasn’t aware of that as a factor in this case. Residency applications for the specialty have also dropped more in states with abortion bans than nationally.

…

Alabama is in the throes of a maternal and infant health crisis, with some of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality in the country. Physicians say those losses should be answered with more access to care — not less.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
    114·
    1 year ago

    This was the goal the whole time. Probirth people don’t give two shits about babies and children. Expect sexual violence against children and women in that town to sky rocket. Expect the poverty rate to increase as well. Except infant and pregnancy deaths to go up as well.

    • SoupBrick@yiffit.net
      14·
      1 year ago

      I would imagine their goal was to enforce their moral code on everyone, regardless of the reality of life. This is the result. I do agree that Republicans don’t give two shits about children or women who they don’t have emotional investment in. This is a “major issue” they can say they made progress on, since they can’t claim they did anything else.

      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
        18·
        1 year ago

        That’s a part of it. But ensuring a poor, unhealthy, uneducated, and subservient population is the main goal. Moral codes are just a shield to hide behind as those making these rules are the most corrupt and immoral people in the world. They know emancipation of the working people is the end of suffering and the end of their (white wealthy men) control.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          11·
          1 year ago

          Yeah abortion was considered a weird Catholic issue in Christianity until the religious right was looking for a new bogeyman after their opposition to desegregating private schools became a losing issue.

        • SoupBrick@yiffit.net
          3·
          1 year ago

          I have doubts the actual seated Republicans have the brains to have that as a goal. I can believe those politicians have fanatic beliefs and the ends justify the means ideology. I am of the opinion that the think tanks, who they get their talking points and directions from, are pursuing the goals you stated in order to keep power.

          • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 year ago

            Oh you think Republicans created this plan. Nope their wealthy donors are the ones coming up with all this.

    • artisanrox@kbin.social
      6·
      1 year ago

      They’re not pro-birth. Pro-birth is living wages and access to health care.

      They’re anti-women, forced birthers, and stochastic/social murderers.