Red State Declares Emergency After Hitting Highest Infant Mortality Rate In The Country
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mississippi-infant-death-trump-health-cuts_n_68af251ce4b0bbcc3f8d6c20?utm_campaign=bluesky_feed
Red State Declares Emergency After Hitting Highest Infant Mortality Rate In The Country
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mississippi-infant-death-trump-health-cuts_n_68af251ce4b0bbcc3f8d6c20?utm_campaign=bluesky_feed
42 comments
Data collected from the state’s health department revealed the 2024 overall infant mortality rate in Mississippi increased to 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births. Since 2014, 3,527 babies have died in the state before reaching age 1.
The data also show that the Black infant mortality rate in Mississippi was more than twice as high as the mortality rate for white infants in 2024.
No way really. It’s not like we all predicted this the day Roe v Wade was overturned.
> That means better access to prenatal and postpartum care, stronger community support and more resources for moms and babies
Sounds like socialism. Sorry, no can do. Best we can offer is a UnitedHealthcare plan that will deny all your claims.
One undiscussed trend of the last few years is how many physicians, nurses, healthcare workers – especially OB GYNs- are dodging the anti-vax and anti-abortion states. Give it another 3-4 years an it will be exacerbated by fewer young people entering these fields. And us blocking immigrants from a couple of countries that help fill that gap.
“Edney said the best way to reduce infant mortality is by improving maternal health.”
Mississippi: “…but that would require caring about women, wouldn’t it?”
Send in the national guard.
tHE prO LiFe paRtY
This is Trump’s America.
i wonder if there’s something science can do to help
Doctors need to just leave red states to their own devices. They made a choice. Now they’re seeing the consequences of it.
Won’t somebody think of the children? How else are we going to keep up our school shooting numbers?
mississippi
Why is that an emergency? They voted for it.
Can’t do shit that physicians tell you will get kids killed, and then complain.
Buckle up, Mississippi. It will only get worse thanks to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. [Eight rural hospitals are likely to close because of medicaid cuts](https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2025/07/10/medicaid-cuts-could-lead-to-8-mississippi-hospitals-closing-see-why/84530916007/). That will delay emergency care costing more lives.
Nutrition is important for both pregnant women and babies. Mississippi has a food desert problem in the same rural and poor areas these hospitals are closing. And, again, Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will exacerbate this issue.
SNAP benefits don’t just benefit the beneficiaries. They use those funds in grocery stores that feed their communities and employ locals.
Grocery stores, especially small independent ones, survive on the thinnest of margins. SNAP cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill will [force some grocery stores to close](https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/07/29/snap-cuts-could-hurt-grocery-stores-nationwide) extending the food deserts that make it difficult for rural and low income people in Mississippi to get the nutrition they need for proper fetal development.
Thoughts and Prayers
>Congenital malformations, preterm birth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome are the leading causes of Mississippi’s infant deaths. Edney said the best way to reduce infant mortality is by improving maternal health.
…and I don’t know…maybe education, jobs, and umm, keeping blood relatives out of each other’s beds.
Slightly unrelated but I saw the headline say “red state” without saying which one and I thought “it’s gotta be Mississippi,”
Lo and behold, it was Mississippi. It’s almost like it’s predictable or something
The natural / logical consequence of anti-woman, forced birth policies in a country with horrible maternal healthcare, high infant mortality, class based healthcare access, food scarcity, etc… Where are all the pro- life Christians that demanded this policy? They should solve this issue with their good Christian love and prayers.
Have they tried not being one of the bottom states in every measure?
Have they tried thoughts and prayers?
>“We cannot and will not accept these numbers as our reality,” State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney wrote.
What he probably means is that they’re going to do what Trump did and fire the person in charge of the numbers.
For all those who believe US healthcare is good, then why do you have third world infant mortality stats. Even your best states are so much worse than Europe, Japan, Australia etc
Coulda just put Mississippi in the headline instead of ‘Red State.’ Of course it’s gonna be a red state. They were warned of the consequences and voted for this anyway. What do you want the rest of us to do about it?
“President Donald Trump put the team behind the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System on administrative leave earlier this year.”
At least he has the taxpayer funds to outfit his new jet he was gifted.
“We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of options!”
Man, if just one of these backwards shithole states would have an epiphany and try investing in the poor and in proper healthcare/science/etc., it would change their lives.
[Studies have](https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/population-care/access-abortion-and-women-s-health-what-research-shows) [consistently shown](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827323000939) [that restrictions](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629620310596) [on abortion](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10393219/) — which is a near-universal *conservative platform and policy –* [*damages*](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9321431/) [the health](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/abortion-bans-impact-on-mental-health) [of women](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/a-year-without-roe) [and children](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/abortion-bans-will-result-in-more-women-dying/).
Conversely, universal *progressive* policies such as [paid parental leave](https://www.srcd.org/research/paid-family-and-medical-leave-improves-well-being-children-and-families), [child tax credits](https://ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/research-updates/why-the-child-tax-credit-is-really-about-improving-poor-childrens-health-a-pediatrician-says/)/[universal basic income](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953621007061), [free daycare](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7113341/), [education](https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/early-childhood-development-and-education), [free school breakfast](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8000006/)/%5Blunch%5D(https://hspop.uw.edu/universal-free-school-meals-improve-health-outcomes/), [universal health care](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230385/) have been shown to *promote* the well-being of families.
Choose your political ideology accordingly.
Once again, all these assholes are pro-birth not pro-life
Is this one of those states that also chased away all their OBGYNS?
Nothing says hating life like voting Republican constantly.
Those upcoming rural hospital closings due to Medicaid cuts will help, I’m sure.
Seems odd that a party who cares so much for children also run states with 3rd world infant mortality rates.
>“We cannot and will not accept these numbers as our reality,” State Health Officer [Dr. Dan Edney wrote](https://msdh.ms.gov/page/23,30305,341.html). “Declaring this a public health emergency is more than a policy decision; it is an urgent commitment to save lives. Mississippi has the knowledge, the resources and the resilience to change this story.”
Sorry bud – that is your reality unless you change the abortion laws. Declaring an emergency isn’t going to do shit.
Cool.. you voted for this.
But hey.. at least there’s no abortions.. only *wanted* babies dying preventable deaths.
This is the win you wanted… now live with it.
Holy shit. Almost 1/100 babies die before their first year in Mississippi.
That’s an insane stat. Like some 1800’s shit.
Remember when the left said abortion bans would lead to high infant and mother death rates? Pepperidge Farms remembers
Two of the states the republicans loath : Massachusetts and California, have the lowest maternal mortality. It’s almost like money and social programs actually help people!
One result of the crazy abortion laws of red states, is that a lot of OB/Gyn physicians packed up and left for better states with better laws.
Mississippi has successfully scared aware many highly skilled educators, nurses, doctors, nutritionists, and an untold number of neonatal specialists and OB GYN’s due to their political, anti-science, and anti-education climate. They also underfund WIC, underfund or remove school lunch programs, food stamps and every other social safety net they possibly can and now, thanks to the President they overwhelmingly voted for, they are about to close 8 additional rural hospitals. And they claim to be pro-Life Christians…now they’re surprised? REALLY?
Relax people. These are babies that have already been born. Republicans don’t care.
Who did Mississippi overwhelmingly vote for in 2024? The same asshole who has cut much of the funding Mississippi relies on for child care, etc.
FAFO.
It’s almost like conservatives have replaced medical consensus and scientific opinion with whatever their pastors and other witch doctors are telling them is true. Hm. Curious.
“State that puts religious dogma ahead of science shocked at the outcome, more at 11.”
Comments are closed.