EDITORIAL
Russia and its Appalling Matricide
A recent study by the British medical journal The Lancet reveals that 34 of every 100,000 Russian women who give birth lose their lives in the effort.
That figure ranks Russia a stunning #62 out of 181 world nations studied, behind Ukraine and just barely ahead of Georgia. Bulgaria, Romania and Estonia all have far lower rates of maternal mortality than Russia, and Russia’s rate is more than double — that’s right, more than double — that of the United States.
Russia’s rate of maternal mortality has improved over the past couple of decades, but that means absolutely nothing because it’s merely part of a worldwide trend and Russia’s rate of improvement lags far behind the world’s pace. Russia’s rate fell 1.9% per year, but that was easily exceeded by places like Dominican Republic and Papua New Guinea and Haiti. Russia’s rate of improvement places it a shocking #98 on the list of 181 nations.
Let’s repeat that: more than half of all world nations did better than Putin’s Russia in decreasing their rate of maternal morality. Combine that with the fact that one Russian woman is murdered outright by her husband every 30 minutes, and you have an abject disaster for which there is only one proper descriptive term: holocaust.
We condemn the abject failure of the Putin government, after more than a decade in power, to successfully manage Russia’s maternal mortality holocaust. Even more, we condemn the outrageous misconduct of the people of Russia themselves in allowing the incompetent Putin regime to remain in power year after year, spending far more time liquidating civil rights and liberties than solving Russia’s life-threatening demographic crisis.
La Russophobe 
“Russia’s rate is nearly three times higher — that’s right, three times higher — than that of the United States.”
I like your math:
United States 16.6
Russia 34.1
“Russia’s rate of maternal mortality has improved over the past couple of decades, but that means absolutely nothing because it’s merely part of a worldwide trend”
Well, not all the countries are improving. For example, the United States got worse: from 11.5 to 16.6. Notice that Serbia is at 8.9, which almost twice better than USA.
Thanks for the correction!
Do you mean to suggest that everything is just fine because Russia’s rate is “only” MORE THAN DOUBLE that of the United States? Or were you just attempting to deflect attention from the damning data we presented, like a ridiculous neo-Soviet troll?
It’s quite true that not all countries improved and that America got worse. Thanks for confirming that you accept this data regarding Russia’s performance rather than claiming it is inaccurate “Russophobia” bias. And you, of course, did actually notice that EVEN THOUGH American got worse and Russia got better, Russia is STILL more than TWICE as bad as America, right? And that’s a matter of NO consquence to you, because you say NOTHING about it — i.e., you could not care less about the fate of Russian mothers. As for us, we’d think it was an OUTRAGE if Russia were only 10% worse than the USA in keeping mothers live during birth, especially since Russia has serious demographic issues. In fact, we’d like to see Russia be at least 10% better. You, apparently, are satisfied with abject Russian failure. Do you know something about Russian capabilities that we don’t?
Actually, the rates of maternal mortality went down largely thanks to USAID funded programs that began in the 1990s. The MOH accepted the new protocols developed under those pilot programs and has been rolling them out. Ditto on infant mortality/morbidity.
We will not hold our breath waiting for Russia to say “thanks!”
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