Slate’s Jack Shafer Demolishes Washington Post’s Alarmist Story on the Murder of Pregnant Women
The entire nation was shocked by reports earlier this month of the murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett. What made Stinnett’s murder particularly shocking was that she was strangled and her baby was then cut from her womb, allegedly by Lisa Montgomery who prosecutors say has admitted the crime.
Stinnett’s murder led the Washington Post’s Donna St. George to pen a three-part series, alarmingly titled “Many New or Expectant Mothers Die Violent Deaths.” The text of the three part series describes the circumstances of the murder of a number of women by boyfriends and husband or ex-es and suggests that such murders are relatively common. St. George writes, for example, that,
A year-long examination by The Washington Post of death-record data in states across the country documents the killings of 1,367 pregnant women and new mothers since 1990. This is only part of the national toll, because no reliable system is in place to track such cases.
St. George goes on to quote Texas Woman’s University’s Judith McFarlane as saying that the 1,367 pregnant women is likely just the tip of the iceberg,
That’s a formidable number — and that’s just the tip. You can’t address a problem that we don’t document. You can’t reduce them. You can’t prevent them. In essence, they don’t exist.
But you don’t have to read very far through the article to realize there are serious problems with it. St. George is typical of mainstream media accounts of amorphous problems in which she simultaneously asserts that little is known about the extent of the problem, but goes on to claim that it must nonetheless be a widespread phenomenon.
Slate’s Jack Shafer noticed the obvious problems and wrote a story for that online magazine criticizing St. George for engaging in such alarmist journalism without much of anything to back up her claims. Shafer writes,
Of course, just one maternal homicide is one more than acceptable, so I’m not arguing with the urgency of St. George’s topic. But she ignores available data that might place the horrific numbers she’s collected into relevant context. According to the Department of Justice, total murders of women in the United States peaked in 1993 at 5,550. The number of murders of women by “intimates”?defined by the government as a spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend?has also been falling since 1993 (when there were 1,581), reaching its lowest level since 1976 in 2001 and 2002 (which had 1,202 murders each year). These trends are all the more positive when you factor in the dramatic increase in the U.S. population since that time.
St. George briefly alludes to this good news in a sidebar to Part 1: Criminologist Neil Websdale of Northern Arizona University cautions her about overstating the maternal-homicide problem. More than 1,000 women are killed each year in domestic clashes, Websdale tells her, the overwhelming majority of whom are not pregnant. But she promptly drops the subject. Why? Does she fear that these statistics will undermine her thesis?
But there is a bigger, devastating problem with St. George’s claims about the murder of pregnant women, and it has to do with her careful parsing of the claim that she documented “the killings of 1,367 pregnant women and new mothers since 1990.” As Shafer writes (emphasis added),
The pivotal research in her piece is “Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy-Associated Mortality–Maryland, 1993-1998,” a 2001 study of 247 “pregnancy-associated” deaths in Maryland between 1993 and 1998 published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It found that “a pregnant or recently pregnant woman is more likely to be a victim of homicide than to die of any other cause,” which St. George quotes favorably.
But the horror of this JAMA study recedes as you read it. We all know what a pregnant woman is: someone who’s carrying a baby. But what is a “recently pregnant” woman? The JAMA study defines the phrase very broadly. By its definition, mothers who give birth are recently pregnant for the 365 days following delivery. Women whose pregnancies end for any reason are also recently pregnant for 365 days after termination. So, a woman who had an abortion, miscarried, or gave birth to a baby would qualify for inclusion in this mortality study if she died with a year of that event.
In fact of the women in the JAMA study that St. George relies on, there were only 50 homicides among the 247 deaths, and only 23 of those occurred while the woman was pregnant. None of which St. George could be bothered to include in her report.
Similarly, St. George notes that in a Maryland study, “slightly more than 10 percent of all homicides among women ages 14 to 44 happened to a pregnant or postpartum woman in the past decade.” But as Shafer notes, some back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that 10 percent of women 14 to 44 became pregnant during the same period of time, so its not exactly surprising that 10 percent of female victims of homicide happened to be pregnant at the time. Except, as Shafer notes, just like the JAMA study, the Maryland study also included women who were murdered after they gave birth, miscarried or had an abortion,
Because St. George’s group of Maryland murder victims includes postpartum women, this means the percentage of pregnant women murdered has got to be less than 10 percent. An unstated premise in St. George’s series is that the new findings refute the intuitive sense that pregnancy provides some protection from murder. But, examined closely, St. George’s reporting seems to support the idea that pregnant women are murdered less often than non-pregnant women.
Kudos to Shafer for such a thorough debunking of the Washington Post’s alarmism. Murders like that of pregnant women such as Stinnett or Laci Peterson are certainly horrifying, but they are horrifying in part because they are so rare. St. George’s attempt to imply that maternal murder may be on the rise is undermined by the very information sources she relies upon.
Sources:
Body Count: Doing the math on the Washington Post’s momicide series. Jack Shafer, Slate.Com, December 24, 2004.
The Muddled Maternal Murder Series: A Washington Post investigation loses its way. Jack Shafer, Slate.Com, December 20, 2004.
Many New or Expectant Mothers Die Violent Deaths. Donna St. George, Washington Post, December 19, 2004.
One Child, Two “Fathers” Paying Child Support
Some men’s activists were rightly pointing to the outcome of Department of Revenue v. Ryan R. in Massachusetts as an example of just how out-of-whack the child support system is. In this case, separate courts ruled that two men declared the father of her child and required to pay child support.
Susan (no last names are given in court proceedings) cheated on her husband, Sheldon, and conceived a child by her lover. Three years later, Susan initiated divorce proceedings against her husband. Despite the fact that Sheldon was not the biological father of the child, he was nonetheless ordered to pay child support, with the court in that case ruling that,
. . . the husband is the only ‘father’ that the child has known during his life, and as the husband has cared throughout the marriage for the child and there is a bond that exists between the child and the husband . . . the husband is the ‘de facto’ father of the child.
The problem for Susan, however, was that Sheldon was also ‘de facto’ bankrupt. So she also initiated child custody efforts against the biological father of the child, Ryan. Ryan resisted such efforts, saying that the divorce proceedings in Susan and Sheldon’s marriage had already established Sheldon as the ‘de facto’ father of the child and, as such, Ryan shouldn’t be liable for child support.
A Massachusetts Appeals court rejected that argument and ordered Ryan to pay child support.
Presumably Susan is kicking herself for not figuring out a way to have the state force additional “de facto” fathers and any number of other unrelated men to contribute to caring for her child.
Sources:
Department of Revenue vs. Ryan R.. Massachusetts Appeals Court, November 2, 2004.
Tags: Uncategorized
Wells College Students Sue to Prevent Admission of Men
Two students of women-only Wells College are suing the college to prevent it from admitting men until they graduate.
Freshman Lauren Searle-Lebel and sophomore Jennifer LeBarbera are suing the college claiming they enrolled in Wells College under the presumption that it would remain a woman’s college, and that by admitting men Wells College is breaching a contract it had with the women. They are seeking a preliminary injunction that would prevent Wells College from admitting men until 2008.
The students’ lawyer, Peter Carmen, told the Associated Press,
We’re asking for very limited relief. We just watn the women who applied to, and were accepted, by a woman’s college to be able to graduate from a women’s college.
Ann Rollo, vice president for external relations for Wells College, told the Associated Press that the college was moving forward with plans to admit men,
It is the students’ choice to pursue legal actionbut we remain focused on moving forward. Students, faculty and staff are fully engaged to make this work.
Source:
Students sue Wells College to delay admission of men. Associated Press, November 30, 2004.
Students demand ban. Indiana Daily Students, December 1, 2004.
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Woman Who Impersonated Man Receives Suspended Sentence in Sexual Assault Case
For some reason Australia and New Zealand seem to produce a lot of bizarre cases like this. A woman who impersonated man and then carried on a sexual relationship with a minor received a suspended sentence recently despite being convicted of nine acts of sexually penetrating a child under 16 — which carried a potential jail term of 90 years according to the Herald Sun. And the kicker is that the judge cited “emotional distress” that the convicted sex offender might suffer as a reason for the light sentence.
The woman was 22, the girl was 15. The relationship lasted 2 and a half years, in which the minor apparently never realized that the “man” she was dating was, in fact, a woman. When police informed her of this, the girl had a restraining order taken out against the woman. According to the Herald Sun, “The nine charges related to one instance of oral sex and eight where a sex toy was involved.”
The woman was then convicted of all 9 charges, but was released on a suspended sentence and the Australian equivalent of parole. At sentencing, the judge noted that the woman consider herself to be a man and that serving time in a women’s prison would cause her “considerable emotional distress.”
As Australian victims rights advocate Noel McNamara put it in response to the sentence, “What about the victim’s considerable emotional distress?” McNamara urged prosecutors to appeal the sentence.
Source:
Woman posed as man to bed girl. Liam Houlihan, Herald Sun, December 1, 2004.
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Just How Backward Is Saudi Arabia?
Okay, there are sexist, misogynistic societies, and then there’s Saudi Arabia.
My wife and I got a hint of just how backward the country is many years ago when my wife gave driving lessons to several women from Saudi Arabia. Their families were scandalized enough to know that they were learning to drive, but this was compounded by the problem that they could not go to any commercial driving schools in the United States because they might have to interact with male instructors. So my wife made quite a bit of money teaching Saudi Arabian women to drive.
But you don’t realize just how far along the misogynistic scale that a society can still be until you read defenses of the system in Middle Eastern outlets, such as Arab News. Arab News’ Raid Qusti has an op-ed defending his view that efforts by Saudi women to vote are pointless and a waste of time,
We are not the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, or even Egypt. Our society is entirely different. Complete segregation of male and females in all aspects of our life is part of our culture, whether we like it or not.
The other factor we have to bear in mind is the conservative nature of Saudi Arabia. Saudi women do not appear in public, be it in the media or in public life. And when they participate in events it is segregated with women only allowed to attend. No cameras allowed.
Open all of our 11 Saudi dailies from cover to cover and you will not find a single photo of a Saudi woman. I believe that most Saudi females would not run for office, and restrictions from their families and social taboos would stop her from appearing before a camera and present her agenda. Getting a Saudi female to actually appear on television for a short interview and state her full name ? even if she has her face covered ? is an endless endeavor. Most would reject it. Both for personal reasons, because she does not want to appear in public, or for cultural reasons; that her husband or family would prevent her from doing so.
Social restrictions forbid women to appear in public. We, Saudi men, are not the ones who have come up with this culture. In fact, the majority of Saudi women want that. Whoever thinks that the majority of Saudi women want mixing and want to appear in the media or in the public eye is naïve or a fool, or both.
But it is what Quist has to say a couple paragraphs later that is most shocking (emphasis added),
I think Saudi women have more important things to concentrate on for the present. One of them is to insist their names be heard in public. Currently, the social norm is that uttering a female?s name in public is taboo. That is why all Saudi wedding cards that are distributed to male guests say, ?We would like to invite you to the marriage of the young man so and so to the daughter of so and so?. Her name is never mentioned. Her name being mentioned to men is a taboo.
This is a society that makes Medieval Europe look like “Herland”.
Source:
Why Women?s Voting Is Complicated. Raid Qusti, December 1, 2004.
Tags: Saudi Arabia
Planned Parenthood Is Back with “Choice on Earth” Christmas Cards
Planned Parenthood is once again offering its “Choice On Earth” Christmas cards for the holiday season,
I suppose you could use it to accompany a gift of a Planned Parenthood lanyard,
Or that “I had an abortion” t-shirt,
Sources:
Planned Parenthood Attacked for ‘Choice on Earth’ Cards. Kathleen Rhodes, CNSNews.Com, November 30, 2004.
Tags: Planned Parenthood
UN Investigating Sex Abuse Claims Against Congo Peacekeeping Force
In November the United Nations announced it was investigating as many as 150 allegations of sexual abuse carried out by the UN peacekeeping force in the Congo.
The actions followed a May 2004 announcement by the United Nations that peacekeepers were alleged to have committed about 30 cases of sexual abuse in the northeastern Congo town of Bunia.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of the allegations,
I am afraid there is clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken place. This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it.
There are close to 11,000 United Nations peacekeepers in the Congo. The United Nations cannot punish offending soldiers directly, but instead must return the soldiers to their country of origin and ask it to take action against the accused.
Sources:
UN: 150 Sex Abuse Charges in Congo Peacekeeping. Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, November 22, 2004.
UN Congo peacekeepers guilty of sex abuse. China Daily, November 20, 2004.
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Amnesty International: Violence Against Women Is Factor in Spread of AIDS Epidemic
Amnesty International released a report in November, Women, HIV/AIDS and human rights, arguing that a failure of governments to tackle violence against women in AIDS-ravated regions of the world is contributing to the spread of that disease.
According to the report,
The increasing spread of HIV/AIDS among women and sexual violence are interlinked. If governments are serious in their fight against the disease they also have to deal with another worldwide ‘pandemic’: violence against women.
The report cites three specific traditional practices which Amnesty International says contribute to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They are early marriage, in which very young girls are entered — often against their will — into marriage; wife inheritance, in which a wife is passed along to her husband’s brother in the event of the husband’s death; and female genital mutilation.
The report also notes that rape and violence against women are a major outcome of persistent wars in some parts of the world, especially Africa which has been hit hardest by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Sources:
Amnesty: Violence against women is spreading AIDS. Reuters, November 24, 2004.
Women, HIV/AIDS and human rights. Amnesty International, November 24, 2004.
Tags: Amnesty International
European Parliament Addresses Female Genital Mutilation
The European Parliament met in November to discuss female genital mutilation, which is believed to be on the rise in Europe as the continent receives more immigrant families from African countries where female genital mutilation is practiced.
Despite this, female genital mutilation is specifically outlawed in only three European countries — Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. Other countries do ban the practice under broader anti-mutilation statutes, but regardless there doesn’t seem to be a lot of effort to enforce such laws. According to a report in Afrol.Com, France has been the only European nation to undertake vigorous prosecution of female genital mutilation, with 25 such prosecutions so far. Sweden has apparently conducted a single prosecution for female genital mutilation. And that’s it.
Part of the problem is that most immigrant families are believed to have their daughters mutilated while they are visiting their country-of-origin. According to Afrol.Com, “Most countries do not follow up their legislation or can not prosecute if FGM was carried out abroad.”
The European Parliament essentially punted the issue back to individual European states. European Commission’s Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, who last year was keen on an EU-wide censorship plan, said that tackling female genital mutilation was simply beyond the European Commission. Afrol.Com reported,
After assuring that “the European Commission and the international community have recognised female genital mutilation as a profound violation of the human rights of women,” she stated that “any legislative measures, however, to combat FGM are not within the competence of the EU, and neither are provisions for the deinfibulation to be performed under proper medical conditions.”
According to the World Health Organization, as many as 100-140 million women worldwide have been subjected to female genital mutilation, and another 2 million girls are likely to face pressure to have the procedure each year.
Source:
Genital mutilation ‘on the increase in Europe’. Press Association News, November 26, 2004.
Europe impotent in fighting female mutilation among African women. Afrol.Com, November 30, 2004.
Caesarean Birth Rate Continues Rise
Earlier this year, I mentioned the ongoing debate about the rise in elective Caesarean births. This week the National Center for Health Statistics released statistics highlighting the fact that the Caesarean birth rate in the United States set a new record in 2003.
In 2003, 1.13 million of the 4.1 million births in the United States were Caesarean deliveries — 27.6 percent of all live births. According to the NCHS, that represents an increase of about 1/3rd since 1996. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t distinguish between elective and non-elective Caesareans. This is the seventh straight year that the Caesarean birth rate has risen in the United States.
Another interesting trend is the odd trend at the opposite ends of the age scale. The teenage birth rate is continuing to drop, while the number of births by women 35-44 continues to increase.
The birth rate for unmarried teens fell, but the overall birth rate to unmarried women increased by 3 percent from 2002.
Sources:
Birth Rate for Women Aged 40-44 Years Rose in 2003, New Report Finds. Press Release, National Center for Health Statistics, November 23, 2004.
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