Pregnant women in the US are more likely to be MURDERED than die of common pregnancy complications

Pregnant women or those who have just given birth are more likely to be murdered than die from pregnancy complications in the US, experts say.

Researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital made the statement in a letter published in the BMJ today.

They cited 2019 research from May this year to back up their statement, which found homicide rates were two-fold higher than the leading causes of pregnancy complications. These were hemorrhage, sepsis and blood pressure disorders.

The researchers blamed the results on intimate partner violence, with one in three women experiencing physical, sexual or psychological abuse.

The majority of homicides involving pregnant women perpetrated by their partners are carried out using guns. The new study reported that as numbers of firearm homicides increase, gun violence has become a health emergency for pregnant women in the US. 

Black women were at substantially higher risk of being murdered by their partners than were Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women.  

‘With numbers of firearm homicides increasing in the US, gun violence has become a health emergency for pregnant women,’ authors of the report said. 

In the decade after 2008, intimate partner homicides caused by weapons declined overall, though homicides caused by guns climbed 15 per cent in that time period. 

The US leads the developed world when it comes to maternal mortality. 

Federal tracking for 2020 determined that the maternal mortality rate for 2020 was 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births compared with a rate of 20.1 in 2019. 

Infection, or sepsis is also a leading cause of maternal death. From 2013 to 2016, 23 per cent of all maternal deaths were sepsis related. 

Hypertensive disorders, which are very common during pregnancy, can be severe. 

Federal tracking shows that among maternal deaths that occurred during delivery hospitalization between 2017 and 2019, nearly 32 per cent had a hypertensive disorder. 

And in the US from 2016 to 2018, at least 11 per cent of maternal deaths were caused by hemorrhaging. 

When tracking deaths among pregnant women in the United States, the CDC does not classify homicide, accidents or suicides as causes of ‘maternal mortality’. 

People with greater access to firearms were more likely to use them against their partners, the report said. 

The risk of intimate partner violence typically increases in areas where guns are easy to obtain. 

The federal government just recently answered renewed calls from the public to pass gun control measures following the devastating school shooting in Uvalde, Texas last spring. 

President Joe Biden signed the bill in June. It included a wide range of policy initiatives meant to keep people safe and provide critical support to states and local governments working to tamp down gun violence. 

Still, it fell far short of accomplishing what Democrats have been advocating for, such as universal background checks and a ban on military-style semiautomatic weapons.

The new law also took steps toward reducing intimate partner violence. 

In a major policy change, the new law closed the legal ‘boyfriend’ loophole. Federal law had already barred convicted domestic abusers from owning firearms, but that only applied to spouses, not dating partners. 

Opponents on the right in Congress, including Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert, have already introduced legislation to quash the gun violence package. 

Boebert, a staunch opponent of gun control measures, said the gun violence bill ‘Tramples on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens, and will have no significant impact in stopping mass shootings and deterring gun violence.’