DNC Vice Chairman: ‘Women Are Dying’ Because Democrats Are Losing

Keith Ellison, the Democratic congressman from Minnesota, said that “women are dying” because Democrats are losing elections.

During a progressive training session on Friday, The Hill reports, the Democratic National Committee vice chairman said that putting Democrats in power is a victory for women’s health.

“Women are dying because we are losing elections,” Ellison said. “We don’t have the right to lose a damn election. We have to win. We have to win.”

Since when does adding members to Congress, regardless of party, help protect anyone’s health?

One of the medical care-related statistics that often scare government officials is the number of women who die while giving birth in the United States.

In 2013, records show that there were 28 maternal deaths per 100,000 births in the country. As such, America has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the developed world. But that’s not because obstetricians and hospitals aren’t regulated enough, as many politicians would like you to believe.

Instead, what we’re seeing is an increase in regulation that keeps entrepreneurial doctors and midwives from opening birthing centers that do not rely on, or push for, a series of unnecessary interventions during delivery.

With health care law pushing the supply of actual care down and the cost of care going up tremendously, women have less access to choices. With fewer choices, women tend to give birth in hospitals that are designed to intervene at a high rate. As such, the number of cases of death involving childbirth goes up. But that’s not the only reason why.

On average, women are now giving birth at an older age which poses greater health risks. Most pregnancies are also unplanned. Working women who already have a hard time getting proper preventive care have no or limited access to care precisely because of its high cost. As such, many women are going to the hospital to give birth in poor health – which is the natural consequence of socializing risk and removing or limiting the responsibility of individuals for their own health outcomes.

If politicians had an ounce of respect for the women they claim to care about, then they would not vote on healthcare-related legislation and would have no say in our personal health care choices, period. By making their own healthcare decisions, women will be saved from unnecessary interventions in child labor and delivery.