Trump and RFK Are Presiding Over a Massacre of the Innocents [View all]

The president’s dangerous misinformation about Tylenol is only the latest threat this government poses to infant and maternal mortality.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-tylenol-rfk-childrens-health/

https://archive.ph/8Sy6S



In August 2025, the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) declared rising infant mortality in the state a public health emergency. According to the MSDH, “2024 data shows the overall infant mortality rate has increased to 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is the highest in more than a decade. In Mississippi, 3,527 babies have died before the age of 1 since 2014.”

Mississippi currently has the highest infant mortality rate in the United States, and double the average of the countries that comprise the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The MSDH said that it declared a public health emergency because it “recognized the urgency of this crisis and could not wait to take action.” A public health emergency allows MSDH to mobilize additional resources and garner the attention and collaboration of more partners. It is a cry in the wilderness, speaking the truth about the fate of children not only in Mississippi but in many other states around the country with high infant mortality rates, like Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

But the public health professionals in Mississippi and elsewhere are facing an uphill battle, because state and federal policies are making their work almost impossible. For instance, Medicaid expansion is a powerful tool in improving infant mortality, but Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves has refused to expand Medicaid, which covers 60 percent of births in the state. Even with an extension of postpartum care under Medicaid in Mississippi to up to a year, many poor women will remain uninsured between pregnancies.

Furthermore, cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will also leave up to 40,000 more Mississippians without coverage. And the Trump administration has all but destroyed the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) by decimating staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Reproductive Health. PRAMS is vital to gathering data on maternal and infant health before, during, and after pregnancy. It also shapes policies and interventions for states across the nation, including Mississippi, which has had to suspend its own data collection efforts in the midst of its public health emergency.

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