Despite its wealth of resources, America lacks unlimited capacity in pursuing medical research.

That acknowledged, it nevertheless is reasonable to conclude that this country is not utilizing all of its available research capacity, and that this nation — and the rest of the world — would benefit over the long run if most of that unused capacity would be put to work.

That said, it would be encouraging if both 2024 U.S. presidential candidates would pledge significantly more money, if elected, for research into unlocking cures for diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s, lupus and many of the others that so far have defied a cure.

Unfortunately, one of the “many of the others” is what the Sept. 5 edition of the Wall Street Journal described as a deadly disorder that threatens new mothers.

The newspaper was referring to preeclampsia, a life-threatening complication during and after pregnancy that is diagnosed in part by a sudden increase in blood pressure.

“The disorder has become increasingly common, including among women who are otherwise healthy — and yet much about it remains a mystery,” the Journal article states.

According to the Journal, the rate of preeclampsia and other disorders in pregnancy related to high blood pressure more than doubled between 2007 and 2019.

An associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University has referred to preeclampsia and other pregnancy-related disorders as ‘no longer a rare finding,” noting that they complicate about 1 in 7 pregnancies a year.

“Preeclampsia can trigger organ damage, seizures or strokes,” the Sept. 5 Journal article pointed out. “Research shows that patients are at significantly higher risk of heart attacks and strokes years later.”

Meanwhile, treatment for preeclampsia reportedly has not changed much in 100 years and, even today, there are treatments for the symptoms but not the underlying disease.

Eleni Tsigas, chief executive of the nonprofit Preeclampsia Foundation, told the Journal that researchers have started examining postpartum blood pressure to better understand what happens to the body right after birth.

“But that is a field that has gone largely ignored and needs more attention,” she said.

The presidential candidates should pay attention to that message — that much more needs to be done to support women after childbirth — and then offer their opinions about beefed-up support.

The Journal pointed out that, although many people think of preeclampsia as occurring during pregnancy, it actually many times strikes after a woman has given birth to her baby — and that there is a scarcity of research on postpartum complications.

According to the Journal’s report, the situation surrounding preeclampsia has become a crisis in healthcare for pregnant women and new mothers in this country.

The Journal went on to say that the U.S. rate of maternal deaths is the highest among high-income nations and has risen since 2018, even excluding a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then there is this paragraph that was part of the lengthy Journal article: “About two-thirds of maternal deaths occur postpartum — a period researchers and doctors increasingly refer to as the ‘fourth trimester.’ Researchers say that postpartum home visits by medical staff and guaranteed paid leave are more common in other high-income nations than in the U.S., factors that can help prevent deadly complications.”

Preeclampsia’s threat to new moms is a matter deserving much more attention and decision-making on the “national stage.”