So Pro-Life They'll Kill Ya

Americans are dying younger. Two new studies show it's conservative lawmaking that leads to this death and despair.

Photo by Jack Prommel on Unsplash

Despite incredible innovations in medicine and science, Americans today are dying younger than they were just a few short years ago. Life expectancy in the US has dropped for the second year in a row, reversing decades-long trends. Covid is a major factor, as are drugs. But even before Covid and the opioid epidemic, Americans were not living as long as our European peers, even controlling for wealth and income. An American born today can expect to live to just 76.4 — the same life expectancy as a quarter-century ago.

In 2019, life expectancy in the US was 78.5. And along with Covid and drug overdoses, American lives are cut prematurely short by insanely high rates of maternal mortality, as well as gun deaths, including suicides. These deaths, though, aren’t distributed equally: As a general rule, people in conservative states die much younger than those in more liberal ones. And that’s not just a result of poverty or education. It’s a direct result of Republican policy-making.

America’s pro-life party is killing us.