Humboldt Park Community Health Center
Chicago, Illinois
As Prepared for Delivery
Let me thank Congresswoman Underwood again for her leadership on advancing policies to improve maternal health equity.
We’re also proud to call her an alumna of the Department of Health and Human Services, where she served during the Obama-Biden Administration.
Putting a Face to the Figures
Today, we’re here to discuss one of the most heart-wrenching crises our nation faces: maternal mortality.
We know the numbers.
Maternal mortality in the U.S. is higher than most other developed and high-income countries.
In the U.S., 52 percent of pregnancy-related deaths take place up to one-year post-partum.
And in Illinois, that number is 80 percent.
But maternal mortality is about more than numbers.
It’s about the seven children in Brooklyn, whose mother died of a blood clot just days after giving birth.
It’s about the mother in New Orleans, who dreamed of singing with her future daughter but never got the chance, because doctors didn’t listen when she told them she was in pain.
It’s about people like our Department’s very own Shalon Irving, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Shalon died a few weeks after giving birth to her daughter in 2017.
“This question will forever haunt me,” her mother said. “How did my daughter end up a statistic?” No parent should ever have to ask that question.
What we’re doing at HHS
At HHS, we’re not waiting to act.
Over the past few months, we’ve held roundtable discussions just like this one with advocates, providers, and lawmakers on how we can improve maternal health outcomes.
And we’re putting our money where our mouth is.
We’ve made $12 million available over four years for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies Program.
In April, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), we approved the first Medicaid 1115 waiver right here in Illinois that will extend postpartum coverage to Medicaid eligible women beyond 60 days and up to 12 months.
Since then, we’ve approved extensions of coverage in Georgia, Missouri, and New Jersey.
And in September, we announced nearly $350 million in awards to every state across the nation to support safe pregnancies and healthy babies.
Build Back Better Agenda
But we are not finished.
The Build Back Better plan provides significant investments in addressing the maternal health crisis and ending racial disparities in maternal health outcomes.
This includes:
- $100 million in funding for grants to address social determinants of maternal health for pregnant and postpartum women.
- $75 million to the Office of Minority Health to award grants to address social determinants of maternal health for pregnant and postpartum women.
- Hundreds of millions of dollars for the maternal health workforce.
- And a permanent authorization and funding of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Congresswoman Underwood has been a leader in Congress on this issue. And I want to thank her for her fight to include these critical investments in the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, a series of bills designed to advance maternal health on issues including social determinants of health, maternal mental health, and maternal vaccinations.
Before HHS’s own Shalon Irving passed away after giving birth to her daughter, she wrote on her Twitter profile, “I see inequity wherever it exists. Call it by name and work to eliminate it.”
Today, we’re heeding Shalon’s call and working to eliminate inequity in maternal health wherever we see it.
But we still have a lot of work left to do.
As we Build Back Better, I call on states across the country to follow Illinois example and support safe pregnancies, healthy infants, and healthy moms.
Together, we can make progress and save lives. Together we can help moms raise the next generation of leaders and visionaries.
Now I want to turn the floor over to a true champion for Illinois and America’s mothers – Congresswoman Lauren Underwood.
