Introduction: I want to determine if maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is correlated to the whether a state is red or blue. Present day politics are polarized and abortion laws have drastically changed over the past years. The recent political turmoil of banning abortions is a debate that has continued for decades. Red states are a majority pro life and blue states are a majority pro choice. With the new abortion laws, many doctors are in jeopardy of losing their licences if they preform abortions. Regulations include the weeks pregnant, whether or not a woman was raped, incest, and danger to the mother’s life. I hypothesize that red states will have a higher maternal mortality rate than blue states. I am exploring this topic because the numbers of maternal mortality have continued to soar despite the expansion of medical technology. I believe that politics are to the cause of the high rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. This topic is continuously talked about in politics but the focus is often on the life of the unborn child instead of the mother.

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Maternal_mortality_1_ <- read_excel("~/Downloads/Maternal mortality  (1).xlsx")

First I downloaded the maternal mortality excel file and all of my packages The excel file is has three columns: state, maternal mortality rate, and red/blue Red represents Republican and Blue represents Democrat I used data from the 2020 Presidental Election between Joe Biden (Dem) and Donald Trump (Rep). These views have divided the country and changed the way medical profesionals practice, in some cases putting the infants life before the mothers

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First, I mapped the maternal mortality rate by state in the U.S. territory based on the most recent data of 2022. Then, I mapped the states with data from 2020 Presidential election and labeled each state red or blue, based on the way they voted. Red is for the republican candidate Donald Trump and blue is democratic candidate Joe Biden I combined both maps on one sheet and titled it “Map Comparison”

After, I determined that maternal mortality rate in 2022 ranges from 4 - 58.1%

Maternal_mortality_1_ %>% 
  group_by(`red/blue`) %>% 
  summarize(max(maternalMortalityRate, na.rm = TRUE)) 
## # A tibble: 2 × 2
##   `red/blue` `max(maternalMortalityRate, na.rm = TRUE)`
##   <chr>                                           <dbl>
## 1 Blue                                             38.1
## 2 red                                              58.1

I found the max maternal mortality rate for both blue and red states Blue states have a max of 38.1% Red States have a max of 58.1%

Maternal_mortality_1_ %>% 
  group_by(`red/blue`) %>% 
  summarize(min(maternalMortalityRate, na.rm = TRUE)) 
## # A tibble: 2 × 2
##   `red/blue` `min(maternalMortalityRate, na.rm = TRUE)`
##   <chr>                                           <dbl>
## 1 Blue                                              4  
## 2 red                                               8.4

I found the min maternal mortality rate for both blue and red states Blue states have a min of 4% Red States have a min of 8.4%

Louisina has the highest mortality rate with 58.1% California has a the lowest maternal mortality rate of 4%

The West coast including Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada follow have the lowest percentage of maternal mortality, they are all blue states When looking at the U.S. as a whole, the states with the lowest percentage in maternal mortality rate are blue states

Maternal_mortality_1_ %>% 
  group_by(`red/blue`) %>% 
  summarize(average = mean(maternalMortalityRate, na.rm = TRUE))  
## # A tibble: 2 × 2
##   `red/blue` average
##   <chr>        <dbl>
## 1 Blue          15.9
## 2 red           24.8

Blue states maternal mortality rate range from 4- 38.1% New Jersey has a rate of 38.1% an outlier for blue states, which 16.6% higher than the second highest recording blue state, New Mexico Red states maternal mortality rate range from 8.4- 58.1% Nevada is the red state that has a rate of 8.4% The lowest maternal mortality red states are Nevada, Alaska, and West Virgina, there rates range from 8.4-12.6% On average states with the highest maternal mortality rate are red

Then I calculated the mean maternal mortality rate for both blue and red states Of the 33 red states, the average maternal mortality rate is 24.84 compared to the 19 blue states average maternal mortality rate is 15.85

I also included a table of the maternal mortality rates by state and the political affiliation in the 2020 Presidential election.

Maternal_mortality_1_
## # A tibble: 50 × 3
##    state          maternalMortalityRate `red/blue`
##    <chr>                          <dbl> <chr>     
##  1 Louisiana                       58.1 red       
##  2 Georgia                         48.4 red       
##  3 Indiana                         43.6 red       
##  4 New Jersey                      38.1 Blue      
##  5 Arkansas                        37.5 red       
##  6 Alabama                         36.4 red       
##  7 Missouri                        34.6 red       
##  8 Texas                           34.5 red       
##  9 South Carolina                  27.9 red       
## 10 Arizona                         27.3 red       
## # … with 40 more rows

Conclusion I was correct to assume that red states would have a higher maternal mortality rate. I was surprised that Louisiana held the highest maternal mortality rate with 58.1%. I believe that correlation between red vs. blue states and maternal mortality rates clearly intersect. The difference between red and blue states average maternal mortality rate is 8.99%. The most recent (2022) election successfully motivated democrats to prevent a ‘red wave’ due in large part to voters’ concern over bodily autonomy. The vote is a small step to ensuring the safety of women in the U.S. Though the issue of abortion is at the forefront of politicians minds the fight for just health care for women continues. The lives of potential mothers and women matter and should not be reduced to the sole purpose of producing babies. The fight for maternal mortality rates to decrease is ongoing.