Infant mortality

Maybe you knew this, maybe you didn't. But we all need to know that, as CNN reports, the U.S. has the second worst newborn death rate in modern world. Only Latvia is worse. Here's part of the report:

(CNN) -- An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report.

American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.

Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births.

"The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn rate is higher than any of those countries," said the annual State of the World's Mothers report.

The report, which analyzed data from governments, research institutions and international agencies, found higher newborn death rates among U.S. minorities and disadvantaged groups. For African-Americans, the mortality rate is nearly double that of the United States as a whole, with 9.3 deaths per 1,000 births.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst place in the world to be a mother or child, with Scandinavian nations again taking the top spots in the rankings by the Connecticut-based humanitarian group.

Well, that's really a claim to fame - that we do better than Latvia. Our record in this regard is truly a national disgrace. But it once again proves that the so-called "pro-life" movement is anything but. They are anti-abortion, yes, but they don't really care about saving and preserving the lives of infants that are actually born. They don't support affordable pre-natal care for mothers who are poor. They are happy for there to be millions of uninsured families throughout our nation. If President Bush really believed in a "culture of life" he would do something to create a culture that indeed supports life.