Infant Mortality Grows In The South

Are cuts in welfare and Medicaid responsible for a leap in the rate of infant mortality in the South? No one is sure but the trends are alarming as the infant mortality rate skyrocketed in Mississippi.

To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant mortality rate — defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births — fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9. Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet reported on 2005.

Most striking, here and throughout the country, is the large racial disparity. In Mississippi, infant deaths among blacks rose to 17 per thousand births in 2005 from 14.2 per thousand in 2004, while those among whites rose to 6.6 per thousand from 6.1. (The national average in 2003 was 5.7 for whites and 14.0 for blacks.)

The Republicans constantly talk about being a culture of life yet every day we see results of their policies whether it is the War in Iraq, the lack of Gun Control or the cutting of social programs that lead to more and more death. I think it is time that they stop using the term "A Culture of Life". It is false advertising at the highest level.