Women and Children Last — The Predictable Effects of Proposed Federal Funding Cuts

"Women and children last" might as well be the refrain of the current U.S. Congress's new health care budget cutters. We have seen similar efforts before. In the mid-1990s, managed care organizations tried to save money by limiting hospitalization benefits for new mothers and their infants to 24 hours after a vaginal delivery and 48 hours after a cesarean section.1 As with current Congressional proposals, financial savings were seen as more important than the health of women and children.

--George J. Annas, J.D., M.P.H., and Wendy K. Mariner, J.D., M.P.H