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Congenital syphilis makes a roaring come back - in anti-abortion states [1]

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Date: 2023-10-17  

The Guardian is running a story on the raise of syphilis in pregnant mothers in the US.

“Congenital syphilis happens when a baby contracts syphilis from its mother. Up to 40% of babies born to untreated mothers will be stillborn or die. Others can be left with severe birth defects such as bone damage, anemia, blindness or deafness, and “neurological devastation”. Guardian Article Link

The article mentions the shortage of treatment drugs, the increase of the number of babies being born with this, and the babies dying. It also mentions that Republicans clawed back a large sum of money the US government was giving to states to deal with this….but the article failed to mention…

Failed to mention that the raise in Congenital syphilis in pregnant women is mostly happening only in states that passed anti-abortion laws. Why would anti-abortion laws impact syphilis rates? Because Planned Parenthood is normally the number one organization helping people with STD’s. Because Planned Parenthood is the number one prenatal care giver to women with little or no health insurance. When a mother has prenatal care, she is screened and treated for STD’s.

What happens in anti-abortion states? They took away funding to Planned Parenthood. Funding for all its services and did their best to close them down. Per the New York Times over 61 clinics closed completely after the Dobbs decision up til the article was published in June, many more will be closing after varies legal challenges.

What happens to women in areas with no Planned Parenthood? They don’t go to doctors, they don’t get STD’s treated, they don’t get prenatal care. They tend to live in areas with staffing shortages, even if they had insurance, they live in Ob-gyn deserts – no appts available. Why are there no service providers for women even with insurance? Again the abortion laws make it difficult to practice sexual health care for women, with all the Politicians in the exam room.

They didn’t just take away abortion options, they took away sexual health care for all women, especially the poor. They took away sexual care for poor men as well – since they normally went to the Planned Parenthood clinics for treatments. Now STD’s are out of control, and raising the mortality rates of new borns in their states. But of course they care about the unborn, not the newly born.

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