Michelle Goldberg follows information relating to women's reproductive rights. I've seen her on T.V. panels and read her work in the Daily Beast. in a recent article she elaborated on the fate of women in the State of Mississippi.
While Mississippi may be proud of its infamous history of fighting against civil rights for African-Americans, women should take a look at the results of the state's policies that adversely impact children and women. In a recent poll, Mississippi is ranked as the worst state for women.
Data shows that Mississippi has the nation's highest poverty rate, second highest teen pregnancy rate, highest teen birth rate and the nation's highest infant mortality rate (ranking close to the rate of the African nation of Botswana). The states schools rank 48 out of 50. MS is only one of four states that have never sent a woman to Congress. If this stae were a country, it would be considered part of the Third World.
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| MS Gov Phil Bryant |
Mississippi is one of the most conservative states in the country. Considering that arch-conservatives think social breakdown is caused by abandonment of traditional gender roles, is should have been no surprise when MS Gov. Phil Bryant laid America's educational woes at the feet of working mothers.
Consider Mississippi’s brilliant new approach to fighting teen pregnancy. On Monday, NPR reported on a new Mississippi law mandating the collection of cord blood from babies born to girls under 16. The idea, apparently, is that DNA could identify fathers who have passed through the criminal justice system and who might be statutory rapists, hence discouraging older men from impregnating younger girls. “Too many of these young teens are becoming pregnant against their will,” Bryant said.
Given that Bryant was a co-chair of the failed campaign for a personhood law in Mississippi—which might have outlawed the birth control pill, the IUD, and the morning-after pill, as well as all abortion—it’s nice to know that he’s suddenly concerned about forced pregnancy. But this law, a gross invasion of girls’ privacy, will do nothing for the state’s teen pregnancy problem. For one thing, as NPR reports, “roughly 65 percent of teenage pregnancies in the state occur between teens who are one or two years apart in age.” Besides, the law doesn’t lay out who will pay for all this DNA testing, or who will be in charge of prosecuting fathers if they find them. “Prosecutors would have to determine in which county conception had occurred before charges could be filed,” says NPR.
Then there’s the very real danger that this law will be used against the girls themselves. Right now, says Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, two Mississippi women who have suffered stillbirths are being prosecuted under the state’s murder statutes because there were drugs in their systems when they lost their pregnancies. If every single teen mother has her cord blood on file, it would be easy for prosecutors to test it if their babies suffer expected medical problems. “If they’re collecting cord blood, it could be used just as easily against pregnant women,” says Paltrow. “She’s at much at risk of prosecution as the person who impregnated her.”
Women, beware of the state of Mississippi!
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