Worst State of the Week for Women: Deluxe Mother’s Day Edition

[Novara]

Worst State of the Week for Women: Deluxe Mother’s Day Edition

For this edition of Worst State of the Week, we honor the mothers of America by looking at some cold, hard statistics in order to answer the question: What member of the Union makes it harder on women just to do the daily work of parenting? We looked across several categories to spread the love among numerous worthy states.

Unintended pregnancy is riskier than planned pregnancy both in terms of the mother and child's health, and in terms of the mother's ability to still achieve her education and employment goals. Rates of unintended pregnancy vary widely by state, but while usual suspects such as Mississippi and Texas are way up there, Delaware, of all places, is the actual winner. As Olga Khazan at the Atlantic explains, the First State "has an unusual confluence of factors that add up to a surprising rate of mistimed conceptions," such as bad access to transportation and poor sex education. Since most teen pregnancy is unplanned, it's worth a look at the teen birth rate, which is highest in Arkansas, with a rate of 43.5 births per thousand teenage girls.

One of the biggest challenges facing mothers is lack of health insurance, which can make it hard not only to get prenatal care but to stay healthy for your children. While Obamacare is steadily improving this problem, many gaps remain. Kaiser has a breakdown of uninsurance rates by gender, and Texas is the clear winner, with 27 percent of women ages 19-64 going without health insurance.

Though everyone likes to talk about work-life balance, there's surprisingly scant comparative data on how the states are doing on family-friendly policies such as sick leave, paternity leave, and safe places at work for mothers to express breast milk. In 2012, the National Partnership for Women and Families put together a state-by-state report card, but because so many states offer little to nothing in terms of parental protections, it's impossible to pick a clear-cut winner for the worst. So let's simply give a shout-out to each state that received an F on this metric: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. (California and Connecticut were the only two states to receive A grades.)

[marym625]

1. shameful

K&R. It's hard to believe how far and fast we have fallen in these areas as a nation. But we seem to be falling pretty much across the board

[yeoman6987]

3. Have we fallen or is it just now noticed?

I would imagine that problems existed way before just 10 years ago. The past wasn't all kumbuya that is for sure.

[Novara]

4. This didn't exist 10 years ago:

Keep in mind this is a 3 week old article: All The 2015 Anti-Abortion Legislation That's Been Passed So Far

<snip>

It’s only April, but 2015 has already seen a staggeringly high of number of anti-abortion laws and restrictions. Both federal and state legislatures have taken major steps backwards for women’s reproductive rights so far in 2015, making it increasingly harder for women to seek safe and legal abortion care. In the first quarter of 2015, legislatures in all 50 states collectively introduced 332 provisions aimed at restricting abortion services, compared to 335 during the entire 2014 legislative session, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Needless to say, politicians have intensified their attacks on women’s right to choose and it’s going to be a gruesome year if this trend continues.

In addition, allowing an employer to fire you for using birth control wasn't an issue 10 years ago either. Also? Having to purchase separate insurance for abortions, should you ever need one. Oh, and let's not forget the men's "rights" groups, online sexual harassment and death threats to feminists.

While some version of hate and misogyny has always existed, we're charting new territory in taking women backwards.

[yeoman6987]

5. Oh sorry you are right

What I meant was woman being treated as second class citizens in general and lack of healthcare.

[Novara]

6. Women have always been treated like second class citizens

And we always will be until we get the ERA passed, and most of this anti-women legislation will become illegal.

[Demeter]

2. Is there any state where women fare better?

besides Scandinavian ones, I mean....