> I doubt many if any modern Europeans or Americans would find fault with the statement, "It's a tragedy when women die during child birth." Where the implicati

> I doubt many if any modern Europeans or Americans would find fault with the statement, "It's a tragedy when women die during child birth." Where the implication of a personal flaw present in that statement, it would be a deeply offensive statement. This strikes me as a perfect illustration of the article's point. The US spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet our maternal mortality rate in 2010 was higher than "nearly all European countries, as well as Canada and several countries in Asia and the Middle East" [1]. As of this year, the rate was more than double what it was in 1987 even as it declines in the rest of the world [2]. Black women's maternal mortality rate is three to four times that of white women [3]. In spite of which it would be "deeply offensive" to insinuate blame here, or that there may be structural and cultural causes that we refuse to see or fix. "Tragedy is a synonym for calamity", indeed. [1] https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/deadly-delivery-the-maternal-health-care-crisis-in-the-usa/ https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/deadly-delivery-the-mater... [2] https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/maternal-mortality-in-the-united-states/ https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/maternal-mortali... [3] https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black-mothers-keep-dying-after-giving-birth-shalon-irvings-story-explains-why https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black-mothers-keep-...