Perhaps those attending the Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families already knew. But it was pretty startling to read what the newly installed director of the Mississippi State Department of Health told them out loud about healthcare in Mississippi.

“We’re not just 50th,” Dr. Daniel Edney said, as reported by Mississippi Today. “We’re 50th by a mile. I think if we had 60 states we’d be 60th.”

Wow!

Of course, the data detailing Mississippi’s ranking is pretty startling. Much of it has been cited at the hearings – bottom rankings in infant mortality, births to unwed mothers, preterm births, miscarriages and low birthweight rates, and children living in poverty.

Then there are those overall healthcare rankings – the Commonwealth Fund ranked Mississippi last in the nation for health system performance based on access and affordability, prevention and treatment, avoidable hospital use and cost, and racial and ethnic equity; U.S. News and World Report ranked Mississippi last in overall healthcare based on next to bottom rankings in the three categories analyzed – healthcare access, healthcare quality, and public health; Fox Business News reported on a WalletHub.com report that ranked Mississippi’s healthcare system at the bottom based on 42 factors grouped into three broad categories – cost, access, and outcomes. HealthCareInsider.com ranked Mississippi last for mental health care based on three factors – cost, access, and quality.

Edney estimated an additional 5,000 unplanned births would occur annually. His comments came at the hearings the committee held at the direction of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to assess the impact the state’s abortion ban will have on mothers and children.

Hmmm.

Mississippi has already carried the label “worst state in the nation to give birth” since WLBT published that headline in 2018. If the state cannot handle existing births any better than it has, what hope do these extra 5,000 babies have?

Hosemann said it’s now incumbent on lawmakers to come up with policies to help mothers and children. The hearings are gathering input to see what may be done. Child advocates of all sorts have testified and brought information. The senate’s committee will hold additional hearings later this month.

House Speaker Philip Gunn finally announced members of his Speaker’s Commission on Life last month. Apparently this group had already been working out of public view. Gunn announced eight areas of need they had identified. However, he made it clear that while he sees an expanded role for churches and the private sector he only wants a limited role for government – government must “up its game” but not expand.

The grim facts and needs about births in Mississippi are front and center. State coffers overflow with money. So, how much, if any, will the Republican controlled Legislature commit to save children they saved from abortions?

“Beware that you don’t look down upon a single one of these little children. For I tell you that in heaven their angels have constant access to my Father.” – Matthew 18-10.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.