Public Health Fascists are Really Stressing Me Out

The Washington Post's Richard Morin reports on an interesting study in the latest issue of Demography.

The ugly wave of anti-Arab feelings immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, may have been responsible for a sharp increase in the incidence of premature and low-birth-weight babies born to women of Arab descent in the United States in the months that followed the terrorist attacks.

...Other researchers studying black women previously have found that stress caused by discrimination boosted production of certain hormones to levels harmful to a developing fetus.

Now, I'm generally skeptical of these kinds of studies because I think it's impossible to control for every variable (regression analysis is the scientific equivalent of Tarot-card reading in my opinion). But, it sounds like the researchers controlled for many variables; and their conclusions certainly sound plausible. Increased stress can cause premature births and miscarriages. So, I'll concede that the researchers might be on to something, which raises some interesting issues.

Will the public health industry (yes, it's an industry) make the next step? "To protect babies we need to criminalize, tax, and regulate things that make pregnant women feel stressed." The most obvious target is hate speech. But, why stop there? It's probably very stressful to be pregnant and not know where you're going to get the money to raise the baby, especially if you already have several mouths to feed. How long will it be before policymakers start waving "scientific" reports suggesting that welfare expenditures be increased to reduce the stress of poor mothers and save the lives of unborn babies. Talk about a pro-life progressive issue.

And why limit the conversation to pregnant women? Stress causes or exacerbates all sorts of health problems. In fact, you could say that stress is an "epidemic". And where there is an epidemic there is federal research money. And power.

"Low wages cause stress, which make people die prematurely. We need a living wage to save lives. It's not an economic issue, it's a public health issue."

"The possibility of losing one's job causes stress, which literally kills people. A new public health study by a major university shows that we need more labor protections and less free trade."

"Families are too stressed as it is. Adding more stress, by making them invest their social security money and pick the school their children go to, will only stress them out more. Too much choice can kill."

And the great thing about stress - from a public health fascist perspective - is that everything causes stress, which means everything should be controlled. Stress will be the next obesity. You heard it here first.