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.

    • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      The people making these decisions are geriatric, they won’t be having any babies themselves. These are people who should be in retirement homes playing bingo instead of ruling the country.

      • GentlemanLoser@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        I think that’s a little simplistic. Conservatives trend older for sure but the hate they carry isn’t going to die with them. It gets passed on, and like sexual abuse it seems some victims will break the cycle while others will continue to perpetuate it. I wish we could just wait them out, it would be easier.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        While true, young Republicans believe the same exact shit and vote the same way (some even more extreme). They just want people to suffer.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah they don’t see it as unnecessary suffering but as suffering due to choices made. They see all abortion as preventable, and so if you do something that may result in pregnancy they think you deserve the kid you’re stuck with.

          There’s also the ones who just believe abortion is always wrong and any suffering to stop it is worth it

  • Maeve@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s okay; those that survive will be excellently demoralized and disposable wage slaves. Sigh.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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    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.

    • artisanrox@kbin.social
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      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.

    • SoupBrick@yiffit.net
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      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
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        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.

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    How much of this is simply due to professionals, including doctors, leaving poorer, more rural areas (rather than to abortion bans)? A poor county in south Alabama isn’t where I would choose to live if I had a choice (which doctors do), and whatever bonds motivated people who did live there to return after getting their medical training are apparently fraying…

    • frogfruit@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I live in a city, and several gynecology offices have closed down in the past year, including several doctors listed in the r/childfree directory.

  • brothershamus@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Senator Tuberville, currently stiffarming the army’s leadership to create a queue for fascist drones to serve dictator trump in the Army on the premise that he’s agains the Army’s allowing abortions, is the senator from this state.

    Doing great work there coach. No wonder you were elected.