American Notes

There was good news and bad news in the infant-mortality statistics released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services. The number of babies who died before their first birthday fell from 9.7 per 1,000 in 1989 to 9.1 per 1,000 last year, the largest annual drop since 1981. The decline in infant mortality was 6%, in contrast to an average 2.5% annual decline in the 1980s. But the U.S. still trails 19 other nations, including some, like Singapore and Spain, that are less affluent. More troubling still, the death rate for black infants, 17.6 per 1,000, was more than double that for white babies, 8.5 per 1,000. "We have a good deal to be proud of," said HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan. "But much work has yet to be done."

The gap between the rates for black and white infants focuses more attention on the Bush Administration's $171 million proposal for improving prenatal care for impoverished women. Congressional critics, complaining that the amount is inadequate, have allocated an additional $25 million for expanded public health and social programs in areas where the problem is most severe -- a step in the right direction, but a pitifully small one.