CBS Evening News dedicated a segment of their Tuesday evening newscast to report that in Mississippi there was a shortage of maternal healthcare providers and hospitals for women to give birth. The abortion activists at CBS attempted to tie this to the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022 and left viewers with the impression that the two had anything to do with each other.
Reporting the story was correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns who bemoaned that "Mississippi already had the highest rate of infant mortality nationwide and the maternal death rate is worsening, especially for black mothers."
Despite the Republican Governor of Mississippi Tate Reeves working to solve the problem, Huey-Burns poured cold water on his efforts. "Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed a series of bills he says create a culture of life including tax credits for adoption and expansion of Medicaid coverage for up to one year postpartum. But critics say the bills aren't keeping up with the challenges," she said.
"In the last year, the only NICU unit in the delta closed. At least three other labor and delivery units across the state have shuttered," Huey-Burns added.
Huey-Burns then interviewed Rachel Morris an OB-GN in Jackson, Mississippi who started an organization to help solve the problem in her state.
"Obstetrics is, a lot of times the first to go," Morris noted.
"That environment inspired Dr. Rachel Morris to launch a program called Stork at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, training emergency workers to deliver babies," Huey-Burns reported. The two went on:
MORRIS: They may not have the luxury of getting in a car and driving two and a half hours. It's gotta be so scary for these patients.
HUEY-BURNS: So you’re able to step in and dress a very specific need.
MORRIS: Yes. A very specific need. Again, a rural emergency room that does not have supplies for delivery if they participate in Stork, it's a way to bridge the gap to give people what they need.
HUEY-BURNS: You're saving lives.
MORRIS: That's why I went into medicine, was to make a difference, so to hear that we’ve made, saved one mother or saved one newborn or made the outcome better, yeah there's nothing like it.
Huey-Burnes ended by revealing that "Morris says the program has trained over 400 people and has a six-month-long waiting list."
Nowhere in this segment was it explained how abortion bans in Mississippi have caused this issue in the state of Mississippi. Yet the suggestion was there throughout the entire segment.
This segment was made possible by Febreze. Their information is linked.
The transcript is below:
CBS Evening News
6/20/2023
6:44:34 p.m. EasternCAITLIN HUEY-BURNS: Mississippi already had the highest rate of infant mortality nationwide and the maternal death rate is worsening, especially for black mothers. It's what a public health expert was warning about when we visited last year as the state's only abortion clinic prepared to close.
Is the state prepared?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No.
HUEY-BURNS: For the consequences?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No, no. It’s not prepared.
HUEY-BURNS: In April, Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed a series of bills he says create a culture of life including tax credits for adoption and expansion of Medicaid coverage for up to one year postpartum. But critics say the bills aren't keeping up with the challenges. In the last year, the only NICU unit in the delta closed. At least three other labor and delivery units across the state have shuttered.
DOCTOR RACHEL MORRIS (OB-GYN IN JACKSON, MS): Obstetrics is, a lot of times the first to go.
HUEY-BURNS: That environment inspired Dr. Rachel Morris to launch a program called Stork at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, training emergency workers to deliver babies.
MORRIS: They may not have the luxury of getting in a car and driving two and a half hours. It's gotta be so scary for these patients.
HUEY-BURNS: So you’re able to step in and dress a very specific need.
MORRIS: Yes. A very specific need. Again, a rural emergency room that does not have supplies for delivery if they participate in Stork, it's a way to bridge the gap to give people what they need.
HUEY-BURNS: You're saving lives.
MORRIS: That's why I went into medicine, was to make a difference, so to hear that we’ve made, saved one mother or saved one newborn or made the outcome better, yeah there's nothing like it.
HUEY-BURNS: Morris says the program has trained over 400 people and has a six-month-long waiting list. Caitlin Huey-Burns CBS News Jackson, Mississippi.
