Today, a woman in the u. S. Is twice as likely to die from pregnancy complications than her mother was a generation ago. Youve looked at this as a doctor, as a policymaker. What needs to be done . We have to prioritize motherhood. As a country, we have, and particularly in the deep south, said that were probirth. If were really going to be probirth, we need to be promotherhood and profamily. It looks and sounds a little like Science Fiction. This is the first Carbon Removal plant on earth, designed to ingest harmful co2 from the atmosphere and pump it into the earth, where it gets turned to stone. Am i optimistic . As an engineer, i am. As a citizen, maybe halfhalf. This goal can be reached technically. Its just whether we have the political and social will to do it. I think thats the exact right way of looking at it. Cox already a big target. This Football Player wasnt just drafted into the nfl. But at 611, hes the tallest player, and the only american playing professional australian football. A fast and fierce game that makes ours looks like a quilting bee. Who is this tall texas transplant and how in the name of walt and matilda did he become a star down under . Thats our story tonight. Im lesley stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im anderson cooper. Im sharyn alfonsi. Im jon wertheim. Im scott pelley. Those stories and more tonight on 60 minutes. I have mododerate to severe crorohns didisease. Now, theheres skskyrizi. Things arare looking g up i ive got sysymptom relili controlol of my crorohns means eveverything t to me. Conontrol is eveverything t t feel signinificant s symptom relief witith skyrizi,i, includining less abdbdominal pn and fefewer bowell movemements at 4 w weeks. Skskyrizi is t the first and only i il23 inhibibitor for crohohns thatat can delir both c clinical reremission and enendoscopic i improvemen. 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Is twice as likely to die from pregnancy complications than her mother was a generation ago. Statistics from the World Health Organization show the United States has one of the highest rates of Maternal Death in the developed world. Women in the u. S. Are ten or more times likely to die from pregnancy related causes than mothers in poland, spain, or norway. Some of the worst statistics come out of the south in places like louisiana, where deep pockets of poverty, healthcare deserts and racial biases have long put mothers at risk. Tonight, you will hear from some of the women trying to improve Maternal Healthcare in louisiana and why they say last summers abortion ban set off a domino effect, making a bad situation, worse. The state of Maternal Health in the United States is abysmal. And louisiana is the highest Maternal Mortality in the u. S. So, in the developed world, louisiana has the worst outcomes for women having babies. Good morning. As an obgyn, louisianas former state secretary of health, and founder of nest, a primary Health Service for families, dr. Rebekah gee spent a career advocating for better maternal care. Renowned for its rich culture and legendary celebrations, louisiana also holds the distinction of being one of the riskiest places in the country to give birth. 39 out of every 100,000 mothers in louisiana die during or shortly after childbirth. How did we get here . Why is louisiana in this position . The high csection rates have contributed, the lack of access to well woman care before and after pregnancies. 50 of the time women dont get that postpartum care which means they have untreated hypertension, untreated diabetes, untreated depression. The fact that we have racial bias in healthcare. And, so, all of these things are compounded especially worse for lowincome women. As louisianas secretary of health, dr. Gee helped expand postpartum medicaid coverage and pushed the state to track how race impacted care and maternal outcomes. Was it underreported . Absolutely. In the prior administration, when i was medical director, we were told we were not allowed to show data that showed health disparities. Because why . Because the political establishment didnt want to admit that there were disparities. A state board now reviews and reports every Maternal Death in louisiana. Dr. Gee worked with that board and found the results especially upsetting. Data showed 80 of Maternal Deaths in the state were potentially preventible. Youve looked at this as a doctor, as a policymaker. What needs to be done . We have to prioritize motherhood, right . As a country, we have, and particularly in the deep south, said that were probirth. If were really going to be probirth, we need to be promotherhood and profamily, right . What does that look like . Making sure that women have time off to get their medical appointments, making sure that we have affordable childcare, making sure that women have access to well woman care. Access is a big hurdle for many women in louisiana. So whats it like to raise a family here . Uh, a struggle. 28yearold Theresa Dubois and 32yearold brittany cavalier are both married, and mothers of two. Theyre expecting their third babies this summer. Brittany runs the local daycare that theresas younger daughter attends. They live in assumption parish, a rural county of 21,000 where sugar cane is plentiful. And doctors are scarce. So, to give us a sense of kind of where we are, how close is the nearest pediatrician . Almost 45 minutes. Obgyn . An hour and 35 minutes. When you have to go to the obgyn and it takes you an hour and a half oh, its a nightmare. Its a lot. Its a lot emotionally. Its a lot in the car. Its a lot on your body, just waiting that long to get help. A third of louisiana parishes are Maternal Health deserts, meaning they dont have a single obgyn, leaving more than 51,000 women in the state without easy access to care and three times more likely to die of pregnancy related causes. The only hospital in assumption isnt equipped to deliver babies, so cavalier and dubois have to travel more than an hour to get to hospitals in baton rouge to give birth, a harrowing journey when theres an emergency. I mean, we are supposed to be one of the best countries in the world. And youre just leaving the women out there to dry. Starting with the most marginalized. Latona giwa saw those disparities when she worked as a delivery room nurse. In 2011, she cofounded the new orleans based birthmark doula collective. Hey, trinity, how are you . Doulas provide emotional and physical support before, during, and after childbirth. Last year, the collective worked with 2,000 mothers. We work with the most marginalized families who are most at risk for poor birth outcomes, and we prioritize working with black and brown families, with lowincome families. In louisiana, black women are up to four times more likely than white women to die during or after childbirth. What do you see in your line of work that black and brown women are facing when theyre pregnant versus a white woman . We live in a country that does not guarantee Insurance Coverage and healthcare to everyone, there is different and discriminatory care. Black and brown people are more likely to be on medicaid. Theyre going to practices that are busier, that take more patients. And thats where the doula comes in. So you have your baby laying studies show better birth outcomes for black women whove had doula care. There you go. Good job birthmarks work in louisiana caught the attention of every mother counts. A maternal Advocacy Group founded by model Christy Turlington after she suffered complications with the birth of her daughter in 2003. I hemorrhaged. There was a lot of blood. There was a whole sort of stream of things that needed to happen. Really scary. Scary and painful. But it was when i got home and really started to think. What about everyone else in the world that this happens to but doesnt have that team of care working together, understanding whats happening and actively managing it . Those questions led turlington around the world to document the challenges women face giving birth stories of midwives in haiti and mothers in baton rouge. How do you compare u. S. Maternal healthcare to Maternal Healthcare in the rest of the world . Well, the u. S. Is one of eight countries that have actually had an increase in Maternal Mortality. So were certainly at the bottom rung. Last year, every mother counts distributed more than a Million Dollars to groups focused on strengthening maternal care in the u. S. , a mission that became even more difficult last summer. After roe versus wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in june, louisiana implemented a sweeping abortion ban. The ban set off a domino effect across the state impacting women like Kaitlyn Joshua, a community organizer. Joshua and her husband were thrilled to learn she was pregnant last summer. The couple have a 4yearold daughter and were looking forward to expanding their family. We started experiencing cramping. I, you know, lost a lot of blood. She told us she went to Womans Hospital in baton rouge where they did an ultrasound, examined and monitored her. Joshua says, thats where the treatment ended. And so i said, okay, so is this a miscarriage . And the young lady, she said, i i cant really tell you that right now. I dont know. And i said, well, what do you mean you dont know . We did the ultrasound. I recall her saying, were just sending you home with prayers, were going to hope for the best. So youre in pain. Uhhuh. You think youre miscarrying, and they say, were going to send you home with prayers . Yes. You know were christians, too, like we pray, but it just was very insulting in the moment just because women come there for answers. So, it would have been nice to get a definite response. Womans hospital told 60 minutes, its complex, when diagnosis of early pregnancy loss is unclear, the standard of care is to wait. The next day Kaitlyn Joshua told us her pain became unbearable so she sought care from a second hospital, baton rouge general, where a doctor ordered another ultrasound. She straight up said, this doesnt look like a baby at all. Are you sure you were ever pregnant . This just looks like a cyst. Wait, she yeah. She questioned whether you were pregnant or not . Absolutely. And they discharged me maybe within an hour and a half or so after monitoring me. And on the paperwork it literally said, potential miscarriage or possible miscarriage, but nothing definite. Knowing what you know now about what your body was going through, could you have died . When i finally did get care from a midwife on, like, day five, she said that you certainly could have died. She said, the amount of blood you lost, the amount of fluids that you were passing was a lot for someone in such a short period of time. Why do you think there was such ferocious pushback from not one but two hospitals . I just have to believe that it is just the vagueness of the abortion ban in this state thats caused so much fear around physicians doing their job. We reached out to baton rouge general, they told us, every patient is different, and that since the ban they have not changed the way they manage miscarriages or the options available to treat them. The hospital left joshua with one option, to take tylenol and monitor for worsening symptoms. In louisiana, some physicians are now afraid to offer methods typically used to treat miscarriages because those same methods are used in abortion and could be seen as illegal, potentially landing Healthcare Providers in jail. To be clear, you were not seeking abortion. Uhhuh. You were trying to have a healthy baby. You needed care and nobody would touch you. Absolutely. I think a lot of times we fail to realize the intersectionality between Maternal Healthcare, reproductive justice and abortion care. Until we understand that all of those things interconnect, we probably will not see change any time soon. We take an oath to do no harm, and thats really our north star as a physician. But when the prospect of doing that might cause you to be brought up on criminal charges, thats a really difficult place for our physicians to be. Dr. Jennifer avegno has been an e. R. Doctor for 22 years and is the current director of the new Orleans Health department. Last summer, attorney general jeff landry sent a letter to doctors about the new abortion ban that avegno says paralyzed Maternal Healthcare across the state. The letter was something that ive never seen before as a practicing physician. A nonmedical layperson inserting themselves into medical care. And there was a direct line about any physician who violates this will lose their liberty and medical license. And so really it was a threat. What kind of criminal penalties does a doctor face . At least one year and up to ten years of imprisonment with hard labor. This is about going to jail this is about going to jail. Doctors dont want to be in a war with their own state. They want to be able to just practice. As the new Orleans Health department director, dr. Avegno has seen how doctors are struggling to interpret the language of louisianas new abortion ban. What theyre being told is, well, you can consult with the hospital attorney. But i dont know of any other disease or process where routinely youre being told, well get the hospital attorney involved. That also brings up what if the attorney advises something that the physician really feels is harmful. So, really, what our physicians are facing is a terrible choice, to make decisions that might not be in the best interest of the patient, or risk going to jail. We reached out to three urban hospitals, rural hospitals, providers. And they said, wed love to talk to you, but were afraid. Yes. That has been the consistent echo from providers. There are several providers i think that would love to speak out, but were told by their hospitals that its too risky. So why are you sitting here today . I am concerned that we are going to see a worsening of our morbidity and mortality rates simply because of access and simply because of fear. The model train set is entrusted to todd. 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