“Happy Black Maternal Health Week!” Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., said Thursday, addressing a room filled with advocates and fellow lawmakers at the Library of Congress. For Underwood, who cofounded the Black Maternal Health Caucus alongside Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., this week — April 11 to April 17 — is her Super Bowl.
In five years in championing maternal health, Underwood and the Black Maternal Health Caucus have secured millions of dollars for maternal health priorities, including over $100 million for Black maternal health priorities just last month as part of the 2024 federal budget that President Joe Biden signed into law. Their love letter to moms across America is the “Momnibus,” a bipartisan package of bills that address “all aspects” of the maternal health crisis through a package of 13 bills.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts. The CDC also reports that death from pregnancy-related complications has gone up in recent years, from 861 deaths in 2020, to 1,205 deaths in 2021.
That, Underwood says, is unacceptable.
“We are so close — we have come right up to the finish line and now we need to get across it together,” Underwood said to nods from the audience. “It’s designed to be a solution, not a Band-Aid. Let’s fix it, once and for all. We know how to fix it — let’s just be courageous enough to get this done.”
Underwood was joined Thursday by Dads Caucus founder Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., Mamas Caucus founder Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and advocate groups such as Chamber of Mothers to discuss the issues mothers are facing, including maternal mortality and lack of affordable childcare.
“In America, we talk about being pro-life, and we care about our people, we care about the economy. I think of childcare as an infrastructure issue. And that's part of why it was a part of the care infrastructure package and Build Back Better,” explained Erin Erenberg, CEO of Chamber of Mothers. “If you have a new baby, who's holding the baby? Just like a bridge is holding transportation over two bodies of water, who's holding the baby when after you have a child and you head back into work? Childcare is a necessity, it truly is essential.”
Gomez, who went viral for carrying his son on the House floor during last year's speakership race, has been a vocal advocate for supporting maternal health and expanding the child tax credit. He says they are laying the groundwork to accomplish these priorities if Democrats are able to take back the House next year.
“We're gonna make the issues of the child tax credit that cut poverty rates in this country a top priority and paid family leave — all those issues — childcare, a top priority,” said Gomez. “This year, 2024, it's a tough election year. But it's all about laying the groundwork for the new Congress in 2025.”
When asked why Republicans haven’t signed on to become members of the Dads Caucus and headline this family issues, Gomez admitted he hasn’t done much recruiting of his colleagues across the aisle.
“I think there is definitely a disconnect on how Republicans view the role of government in people's lives. They, I often say and history has shown, care about how you are born and how you die, but they don't really care about anything in the middle. That is something that we have to try to change.”
Black Maternal Health Week runs from April 11 through April 17.