Indianapolis Star

Indiana’s new state budget made significant cuts to public health spending that will harm those in need. State leaders, meanwhile, are unprepared to address the challenges that will result from this abdication of responsibility.

The state budget reduced funding for local public health grants from $150 million to $40 million annually. This funding is used by all Indiana counties for preventative care to improve maternal and infant health and to reduce barriers to care for new mothers, seniors, low-income families and rural residents.

These cuts were enacted even though Indiana’s maternal and infant health is abysmal, and the state ranks near the bottom in the nation for mental health care.

Indiana has the third-highest maternal mortality in the nation, and 25% of Indiana counties are maternity care deserts.

Infant mortality is also around 14% higher than the national average. Several years ago, an infant died almost every 14 hours in our state.

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I had the opportunity to attend Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s town hall in Greenfield on June 4 and express my concerns about these public health and mental health funding cuts. I expected that Beckwith would advocate for a comprehensive strategy to address these health care deficiencies. Rather, he stated that churches and nonprofits, including crisis pregnancy centers, would assume the responsibility of providing maternal, newborn and mental health care.

He made this claim with no concrete plan on how these institutions would accomplish this major undertaking. With such abdication of responsibility for public health in Indiana, health outcomes in our state will likely get worse.

Catherine Cooper is a nurse practitioner. She lives in New Palestine.