Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke at the “She the People” presidential forum in Houston and garnered attention when she unveiled a plan to bring down the childbirth mortality rate among Black women.
"Even after we do the adjustments for income, for education this (problem) is true across the board," Warren said. "This is true for well-educated African American women for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I've seen put it down to just one thing, prejudice."
And that prejudice shows itself in statistics released by the Center for Disease Control that indicate Black women are three to four times as likely to die in childbirth as compared to white women.
Black moms in our country are dying from childbirth-related causes 3-4 times more often than white moms. Any meaningful solution to our maternal mortality crisis must address structural racism as a root cause of this problem. My new idea would tackle this crisis head on. pic.twitter.com/1YcaVNTedz
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 24, 2019
Sen. Warren's plan would give bonuses to hospitals where the rate decreases, giving a financial incentive for doctors and nurses to provide for all in their care.
"And if they don't," Warren said, moving to the second half of her plan, "then they're going to have money taken away from them. I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change and we gotta have change now."
Advocates are forcing Black maternal mortality into the conversation. There are important ideas on the table. Here's mine: Hit health care providers in their wallets. Make it unacceptable for providers to tolerate our high rates of moms dying—especially Black moms. #SheThePeople
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 24, 2019
Warren is not the only 2020 hopeful to address the issue of Black maternal health, as Sen. Kamala Harris relaunched Black Maternal Health Week to draw attention to the problems facing Black women in pregnancy care. Congress also created the Black Maternal Health Caucus to close racial disparities in care.
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