Pregnant women in Franklin County and neighboring areas of northeast Georgia can no longer deliver babies at St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital just outside Lavonia. But Georgians and, indeed, all Americans now have the privilege of being able to buy gun silencers without having to pony up a $200 tax.

How, you might wonder, are these two things connected? Fairly directly, as it happens.

The front page of this morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution brings the news that St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital, located on I-85 just outside the town of Lavonia, is closing its labor and delivery unit because of impending Medicaid cuts wrought by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. A hospital spokesman was quoted by the AJC as saying that the anticipated cuts to federal assistance forced the hospital’s hand.

Franklin County and its adjoining counties — Banks, Hart, Madison and Stephens — comprise one of the Trumpiest regions of the state. Franklin County gave Donald Trump 86% of its vote in the 2024 presidential election; the five-county area as a whole came in at 81% for Trump.

“We are feeling very desperate and destitute,” the AJC quoted a representative of a nearby pregnancy care center as saying. “Our fear is there’s going to be highway deliveries. There’s going to be women on the side of the road having babies and no pre-natal care.”

That little five-county corner of the state is represented in Congress by Republicans Mike Collins and Andrew Clyde. Collins, now a proudly pro-Trump candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jon Ossoff, was a loud supporter of the BBB. He even took to the House floor on the day of the vote to extoll its purported virtues — including tax cuts, support for small business and deregulation — and exhort his fellow members to vote for the bill. Collins neglected to mention the bill’s impact on healthcare.

Clyde, meanwhile, played harder to get. The three-term congressman and gun store owner cast one of the deciding votes for the bill after winning support from the White House and House leadership for an amendment that eliminated the $200 federal tax on gun silencers. The bill passed the House by a single vote, 215-214.

From the AJC’s coverage of the issue: “My Democrat colleagues have asked how did it (the amendment) get in the bill, what was in the deal and who asked for it?” Clyde, R-Athens, said during debate. “No deal. I believe the speaker with the purest of motives wanted to restore a constitutional right. Who asked? Me, I asked.”

Clyde and Collins ran up even gaudier victory margins in these northeast Georgia counties than Trump. Collins won no less than 79% of the vote in the three counties he represents — Franklin, Hart and Madison — while Clyde did even better in Banks (90%) and Stephens (83%).

Clearly, northeast Georgians are getting what they voted for. Pregnant women will have to drive an extra 45 minutes to have their babies. But gun silencers are cheaper.