Hello and welcome to another episode of the Weeds. I'm your host Dylan Matthews and today

I'm joined by regular co-host Darryl Lynn. Hello. And Fox Senior Reporter Karen Landon.

It's so nice to be with you all. Hi Dylan. Hi Darryl. So just hours before we tape this

on Friday, June 24th, the Supreme Court issued a decision that overturned Roe v Wade. Obviously

this is a major ruling that will have near immediate effects in some states that already have

trigger laws on the books. Those are 13 states that could ban abortion within the next

30 days based on legislation that would trigger bans in the event of a ruling like this.

In some of those states, the ban could come even sooner. The governor and attorney general

and Missouri, for instance, have just acted to institute an abortion ban earlier. There's

going to be a lot of coverage in the next days and weeks about the decision, much of it

here at Fox, about the legal implications and the political fallout that will come. But

something we've been thinking about in anticipation of this ruling is the long term effects it'll

have on maternal health and maternal mortality. It's almost impossible to talk about the implications

of ban in abortion without addressing the extremely high rate of maternal mortality in the

US. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries. And

when you look at the disparities among pregnant people in the US alone based on race and income,

it paints a very bleak picture. But before we talk about how we compare to other countries,

it's important to have a solid understanding of maternal mortality in the US, like how

it's measured or what counts as a pregnancy related death. So, Karen, we're really lucky

to have you with us today, because not only do you write about health and medicine here

at Fox and then have covered some related topics, you are also a literal doctor. So can you

help us get a sort of basic understanding of what we're talking about when we say maternal

...