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was chemically castrated for being gay, leading to his suicide.Bambi holding a photo of her with her mother. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
Bambi holding a photo of her with her mother. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)Today, Marie-Pierre Pruvot — as she is also known — lives alone in an unassuming apartment in northeastern Paris. Her bookshelves spill over with volumes of literature and philosophy. A black feather boa, a lone whisper from her glamorous past, hangs loosely over a chair.At nearly 90, Bambi is the last of a dying generation. She outlived all her Carrousel sisters — April Ashley, Capucine, and Coccinelle.
And though the spotlight faded, the legacy still shimmers.In her heyday, Bambi wasn’t just part of the show; she was the show — with expressive almond-shaped eyes, pear-shaped face, and beauty indistinguishable from any desired Parisienne. Yet one key difference set her apart — a difference criminalized by French law.
The depth of her history only becomes apparent as she points to striking and glamorous photographs and recounts evenings spent with legends.
Cabaret photographs of Bambi in her performing heydays. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)Consider Norway, which has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the world: zero. Through its universal health care system, people get free prenatal appointments at health centers near their homes.
For every 1,000 live births, Norway has 13 OB-GYNs and 54 midwives, thefound, compared with 12 OB-GYNs and four midwives in the U.S.
Regular care means problems are spotted and treated early, said Roosa Sofia Tikkanen, a doctoral candidate at the Center for Global Health Inequalities Research in Norway.“Maternal mortality is an entirely preventable event providing you have access to basic health care,” Tikkanen said. “Not high-tech health care but basic health care.”