Happy Mothers' Day, Be Careful!

Here's wishing all of the mothers in my readership a happy Mothers' Day.  I'm grateful to my mom for the values she instilled in me and my siblings, and the stellar example of proper conduct she modeled for us.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that this Mothers' Day is fraught, in light of the leak about the SCotUS' plan to overturn Roe vs Wade.  The United States has an appallingly high maternal mortality rate, more than double that of most wealthy countries, with non-Hispanic African-American women having a horrific mortality rate of 55.3 deaths per 100,000 live births.  Predictably, the maternal mortality rate tends to be higher in red states (with New Jersey being an odd outlier), precisely those states which are poised to ban abortion if Roe vs Wade indeed gets overturned.  It's here where I note that maps of all sorts of bad outcomes in the US invariably correspond to maps of the Confederacy.

The Republican foes of abortion rights are so demented, Republicans in several states even stated that they would ban abortions in the case of ectopic pregnancies, basically forcing women to die, killed by non-viable embryos.  The outcry caused Missouri Republicans to back down from this particular horror.  For the record, a few years ago, Ohio Republicans pushed legislation to 'transplant' ectopic embryos into the uterus.  This isn't about saving babies, it's about controlling women, even to the point of killing them.

So, have as happy a Mothers' Day as you can under the circumstances... the fight will continue, so maybe a little break, perhaps a champagne brunch with the kids, is in order.  Be careful, though, moms, because the second half of this year is shaping up to be pretty damn bad.