For a pregnant woman in a small town, knowing there's a hospital nearby that can safely deliver her baby is one of the most basic forms of security a community can offer. That security is quietly vanishing in rural areas across the country, as hospitals squeezed by federal funding cuts shut down the very units where new lives begin.

Every year, mothers across the American South leave for the hospital to have their babies — and some never come home. The United States already has the worst maternal mortality rate of any wealthy country in the world, and the South is at the center of that crisis.

When a child goes hungry tonight in a refugee camp, or a mother cannot get medicine for her sick baby, the cause may seem distant and complicated. But sometimes it traces back to a single decision made thousands of miles away — a decision to stop sending help.