On May 30 2019 the Facebook page “Occupy Democrats” shared the following meme (archived here), purportedly contrasting rates of infant mortality in states which had recently passed or had pending restrictions on abortion:
In a column on the left side of the meme, nine states were numbered under a column, “states passing abortion bans.” Those states were: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah.
The same states were listed in a different order on the right side of the meme, with assigned numbers for purported infant mortality rate rankings in the United States:
- Mississippi (1)
- Arkansas (2)
- Alabama (5)
- Georgia (8)
- Ohio (9)
- Louisiana (10)
- Kentucky (15)
- Missouri (18)
- Utah (26)
No citations were included in the status update itself, but lettering at the bottom-left middle of the meme read “Source: CDC.” As mentioned, each state mentioned had recently passed or proposed laws restricting access to abortion procedures.
A page on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “Infant Mortality Rates by State,” provided the most recent available statistics for infant mortality by state (2017). On that list, the states listed above were as follows:
- Mississippi (1)
- Arkansas (2)
- Alabama (5)
- Georgia (8)
- Ohio (9)
- Louisiana (10)
- Kentucky (15)
- Missouri (19)
- Utah (27)
As noted in boldface above, the list was mostly accurate, with the exception of the final two states — Missouri and Utah. Each state was ranked one number lower than provided in the meme, at 19 and 27 (versus 18 and 26 respectively.) Otherwise, the numbers provided in the meme were accurate.
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