Marshall here. Welcome back to the Realignment.

Ever since Saga and I launched the Realignment back in 2019, we've done our best to avoid

particularly controversial cultural war issues. Not because they aren't important, just

because we have a really mixed, very heterodox audience and it's hard to pick a topic or

an issue that is going to piss off one side or the other. With that said, it's just a

clear reality of American politics now that questions of abortion policy, pregnancy,

birth or the center of our politics and a show focused on the realignment of the American

political system cannot ignore the phenomenon. So I thought I would take the issue from the

perspective of birth, pregnancy and motherhood in America. We've got a great author to discuss

with today. Rebecca Grant, she's the author of birth, three mothers, nine months and pregnancy

in America. And this conversation is really set up around addressing the factors that anyone

in this country, whether they're pro-choice, pro-life, pro-abortion, anti-abortion, pick

your, means describing the situation politically, is going to have to confront. You are going

to have to confront the fact that America has incredibly high maternal mortality, despite

the fact that we are a wealthy industrialized country. You're going to have to confront

the fact that even after you control for education and income, black women are much more likely

to die in childbirth than white women. And of course, you're going to have to contend

with the fact that race, all those issues aside, it is just much more expensive to have

a child in the U.S. than in its other countries. Always phenomenon present different opportunities

for folks from different sides to engage. So I hope they do so accordingly.

All right, said quick other notes before we get in. Number one, so I'm going to be back

next week with our next Q&A discussion episode. So if you have not subscribed to the Realignment

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