Red State Policies Are Deadly — Especially For Women

The mortality rate of females in 43 percent of U.S. counties from 2002-2006 is eye-opening. This map from health researcher Bill Gardner helps you see where the worst results are typically coming from — red states and the redder parts of blue states.

With red states rushing to turn down the Medicaid expansion, these results will likely only get worse.

We’ve told you before how most of the growth in food stamps has come from districts that vote Republican. And you know that most red states take more money from the federal government than they put in. But another study suggests that red states’ high levels of gun ownership make them especially dangerous:

With few exceptions, states with the highest rates of gun ownership — for example, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alabama, and West Virginia — also tended to have the highest suicide rates. These states were also carried overwhelmingly by George Bush in the 2000 presidential election.