“Something is not right”: Democrats reflect on the state of the Black maternal health crisis
During Black Maternal Health Week, lawmakers acknowledged their progress while looking ahead to the work that remains to save Black moms.
My birth story is kind of bittersweet. My parents were stoked about my arrival, but my mom had to be induced because her blood pressure spiked when she went into labor. She almost lost her life while giving me mine.
It’s too bad my mom’s story isn’t unique.
In fact, for too many Black women, pregnancy and childbirth can be fatal events. While women in America are dying at a higher rate than those in any other high-income nation, Black women are up to three times more likely than their white counterparts to die of pregnancy-related causes. One in three US counties are considered maternity care deserts, an outcome that makes accessing lifesaving care all the more difficult. More than 700 women died in 2022 due to pregnancy-related complications—most of these were preventable.
The extent of this crisis makes moments like Black Maternal Health Week—an annual observance to raise awareness about the disparities in health care outcomes experienced by Black women across the country—vital to ensuring equity in the US health care system and celebrating the strength in resilience of Black mothers in the face of persistent injustice.
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) told Once Upon a Hill that there are still so many people who don’t realize Black maternal health is an issue, which is why she spends much of her time sounding the alarm.
“I’ve gone to Black churches and places like that and spoken to Black women about how to be your own best advocate,” she said. “Find out everything you can find out. If you’re hurting or you think something you’re being told doesn’t feel right, get a second opinion or push back on your provider.”
Kelly added that even the most educated women are often unaware of all the complications that can arise during high-risk pregnancies until it’s too late.
That’s where a diverse health-care workforce comes in.
“The other thing is how we train our medical professionals,” she said. “Something needs to be different because there is systemic bias, racism, whatever you want to call it. Something is not right that this affects African-American women and indigenous women, who also have a big problem with it as well.”
Vice President Kamala Harris placed the Black maternal health crisis near the front of her executive portfolio when she was sworn into office. At the time, just three states expanded Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to 12. Now, 45 states plus Washington, DC and the US Virgin Islands provide a year of coverage following childbirth.
During public appearances, both in her official capacity and on the campaign trail, Harris has also drawn parallels between the anti-abortion’s movement against reproductive freedom and the maternal health care crisis.
“The top ten states with maternal mortality all have abortion bans,” she said on the Willie Moore Jr. radio show earlier this month. “So these legislatures are trying to tell women, ‘Oh, we’re passing these abortion bans because we know what’s in your best interest,’ and at the same time they’ve been silent on an issue like maternal mortality. It’s hypocritical.”
President Joe Biden called Harris a key leader on the issue and said he remained committed to addressing the long-standing inequities that Black communities have faced and that continue to damage the health and wellness of Black mothers.
“For example, we have been working to end discrimination in housing, make public transit more accessible to everyone no matter where they live, expand access to healthy and affordable food, and tackle dangerous environmental injustices that take the biggest toll on families from communities of color,” Biden said in a presidential proclamation to mark BMHW, which started last Thursday and ends today. “This week, we extend our gratitude to all the maternal health care workers, who are on the frontlines of this work. Together, I know that we can make America the best country in the world to have a baby.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) expressed pride in the CBC’s leadership on Black maternal health and its partnership with the administration to address the crisis.
“I’m proud of the work that the women of the Congressional Black Caucus have done to advance both the issue and the funding,” Horsford told OUAH. “The fact that the Biden-Harris administration has made it a priority based on the disparate impact, particularly on Black women, the high rate of both loss of pregnancy as well as the effect after pregnancy with postpartum issues that we’ve made a priority and will continue to do so.”
President Biden signed more than $100 million in funding last month to address the maternal health crisis, including resources for the National Institutes of Health to expand research on the leading causes of maternal mortality and identify interventions that promote maternal health equity. The funding bills also included dollars for research grants at minority-serving institutions to study maternal health disparities and community-based organizations that support moms in geographic areas with high rates of adverse maternal health outcomes. The legislation also included millions of dollars for the Maternal Mental Health Hotline and training programs to certify midwives.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) told me Black Maternal Health Week is a chance to celebrate the momentum and progress of the Momnibus, a comprehensive package of bills that would provide historic investments to address drivers of maternal mortality, morbidity, and disparities in the United States.
“A lot of people don’t know how much money was in there. So it’s an opportunity for us to put a bright spotlight on the dollars that are already going out so that the most-impacted communities know that they’re eligible to apply for these dollars, which is a big win,” Underwood, who co-chairs the Black Maternal Health Caucus with Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), told OUAH in an interview. “Because we can pass all the bills, we can authorize all the funding, but if people don’t know, then it actually doesn’t help.”
The week is also where lawmakers like Kelly take stock of the urgent crisis gaps to fill next.
“We need doulas in rural areas. We need mobile vans so people don’t have to drive over an hour to get care. We need centers of regional leadership where people can go and learn best practices and deal with this systemic racism,” she said. “There is more to do. But we’re slowly getting there.”