On the front page of my local newspaper today was the sad news that the Carbon County hospital in Rawlins, Wyoming, can no longer provide labor and delivery services to pregnant women. The hospital has been operating at a loss of 2 million dollars and chose this appalling hit to women’s health care as a way to save money. The article contains other bleak statistics. There are only 17 midwives in the state, nine of whom are actually based in neighboring states. The high cost of nursing care was cited as one of the causes of the hospital’s woes. Local delivery nurses, often women, will now lose their jobs. Pregnant women in Carbon County will have to travel more than 100 miles for hospital deliveries, and home births will be increasingly dangerous to consider as an option.
Of course Wyoming will outlaw abortions as soon as Roe v Wade is no longer in place, but the legislature is loath to support social services like health care. Gotta keep those taxes low, you know. Here is another example of the war against women, not often mentioned. There will be no abortions in this state, but there is also decreasing support for both the unborn and their mothers. My tag (wyogirl1868) indicates my sad quandary. I am a sixth-generation Wyomingite but am increasingly unable to justify remaining in a place that can barely function as a state let alone adequately support the health care needs of its female residents.