Dear MAGA: 20190307 Open Topic

A North Dakota company is offering to build 234 miles of President Trump’s border wall for a fraction of the $8 billion President Trump wants for the same stretch.
Telling the Washington Examiner that President Trump is overpaying, Fisher Sand and Gravel Company CEO Tommy Fisher says his company can do the job for just $1.4 billion, or $4.31 billion if the US government wants to incorporate paved roads and border technology – plus a warranty!
“Our whole point is to break through the government bureaucracy,” Fisher told the Examiner. “If they do the small procurements as they are now … that’s not going to cut it.”
Read More:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-06/forget-8-billion-company-will-build-234-miles-trumps-border-wall-14b

A Summary of the “Risk of Severe Maternal Morbidity by Maternal Fertility Status: a US Study in 8 States”
by Kallie Fell, CBC Research Associate on MARCH 6, 2019
http://www.cbc-network.org/2019/03/maternal-morbidity-fertility-status/
http://www.cbc-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/human-egg-crate-red-web-e1551623830263.jpg

An important study revealing the risks of IVF pregnancies has surfaced. When I first opened this article, I was surprised to read that it had originally been presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in 2017, but it doesn’t seem like fertility doctors even paused to consider its findings. More and more women are becoming pregnant through IVF using either their own or donor eggs, but I don’t think they fully understand the risks they create for themselves or their unborn babies.
… I understand that keeping track of these groups can be confusing, but it’s important if you want to understand the results, so I drew out a schematic (the boxes in green are the final six groups of women).
http://www.cbc-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pregnancy-Types.png
The study population was huge. It included 1,477,522 pregnancies and births! Here’s what they found:
– ‘Subfertile’ and all four groups of IVF pregnancies had increased risk of blood transfusion at delivery.*
– ‘Subfertile’ and all four groups of IVF pregnancies had increased risk of 3rd or 4th degree lacerations at delivery.*
– There was an increased risk for unplanned hysterectomy (removal of the uterus) for three of the IVF groups (IVF pregnancies where mothers thawed their own eggs, and IVF pregnancies from both fresh and thawed donor eggs; or groups 4, 5, and 6).*
– There was an increased risk for uterine rupture for moms that used their own, fresh egg for IVF (group 3).*
– ‘Subfertile’ women had highest rates of gestational diabetes, but all four IVF groups had higher rates of gestational diabetes when compared to the ‘fertile’ group.
– Pregnancies from IVF with donor eggs (either fresh or frozen – groups 5 and 6) had the highest rates of pregestational and gestational hypertension (high blood pressure).
– Fertile women were the most likely to successfully deliver vaginally.
– NICU (neonatal ICU) admissions were higher in all fertility treatment groups (‘subfertile’ and all IVF) when compared to ‘fertile’ pregnancies.
– IVF using donor eggs (either fresh or thawed) had the highest rates of NICU admissions for the baby and intensive care (ICU) admissions for the mother.
(*denotes statistically significant findings)
This study did not research or delineate the reason behind the increased need for blood transfusions, hysterectomy, or the cause of any other morbidity (such as lacerations and high blood pressure). However, they did discuss (using data from other studies) possible reasons for these outcomes. For example, women who get pregnant using IVF are more likely to carry multiple babies. It is well known that carrying twins or triplets puts the mother at greater risk for adverse outcomes due to over-stretching of the uterus and altered placentation. Further, the risk in cesarean section is increased for older women, the primary targets of IVF and assisted reproductive technologies.
This study did not explicitly state which pregnancies were surrogate pregnancies, but we can assume that surrogate pregnancies would fall into groups 3 and 4 for traditional surrogacy, and groups 5 and 6 for gestational surrogacy. Therefore, this is yet another study that shows us the dangers of surrogacy on exploited women. Regardless, the conclusion is simple and obvious: the risk of severe maternal and fetal morbidities (disease and symptoms of disease) are increased for women that utilize IVF, especially those resulting from donor eggs. At the CBC, we often focus on the harms incurred by those that donate their eggs, but it seems that egg donation is risky for everyone. Does #BigFertility really care about women’s health, or do they only care about the big money?