As the United States continues to face a maternal health crisis, health care providers, advocates, and lawmakers are calling on Congress to pass legislation aimed at improving maternal health outcomes and expanding access to maternity care.
On Thursday, August 6, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and health care providers joined Protect Our Care for a virtual press conference focused on the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act. The event came as Republican-backed cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs threaten to make maternity care more difficult to access for millions of people.
The Momnibus is a package of 14 bills designed to address the underlying causes of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, while targeting racial disparities in maternal health outcomes. The legislation includes provisions addressing social determinants of health, investments in community-based organizations, maternal health workforce development, support for incarcerated moms, respectful maternity care and data collection, and many others.
Booker reintroduced the legislation in the Senate this Congress alongside House sponsors Reps. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) and Alma Adams (D-NC). The legislation builds on previous versions of the Momnibus that Booker and other lawmakers have introduced in Congress.
The renewed push comes as maternal health outcomes in the US remain among the worst in the high-income nations and recent Medicaid cuts included in the “Big Ugly Law” threaten access to care. Medicaid covers more than 40% of births in this country. More than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the US are preventable.
The disparities by race remain stark. In 2024, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, more than three times the rate of 14.2 deaths per 100,000 live births among white women. Black women accounted for 17.6% of maternal deaths in 2024 despite representing a much smaller share of the U.S. population.
The racial disparities are even more pronounced in some communities. During the press conference, Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon and maternal health advocate, highlighted the disparity in Philadelphia, where Black women accounted for 43% of births but 73% of pregnancy-related deaths. Stanford emphasized that this is not about biology, but about access.
The disparities in maternal health are shaped by a range of factors, including access to prenatal and postpartum care, insurance coverage, hospital availability, socioeconomic conditions, and the quality of care patients receive. When people cannot access timely and affordable care, preventable complications can become life-threatening.
Protect Our Care has warned that recent federal health care cuts could force maternity wards and other providers to reduce services or close altogether. Since the passage of the law, Protect Our Care has tracked more than 50 maternity wards that have closed or announced plans to close.
With hundreds of people still dying from maternal causes each year and Black women continuing to experience maternal mortality at more than three times the rate of white women, the US cannot afford to delay action. The Momnibus would provide a comprehensive federal approach to addressing the systemic barriers contributing to the crisis while investing in the communities and providers working to make pregnancy and childbirth safer.
The bills included in the Momnibus include the Extending WIC for New Moms Act, the Social Determinants for Moms Act, the Data to Save Moms Act, the Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act, the Moms Matter Act, the Maternal Vaccinations Act, the Maternal Health Pandemic Response Act, the Tech to Save Moms Act, the Perinatal Workforce Act, the IMPACT to Save Moms Act, the Maternal Health for Veterans Act, the Kira Johnson Act, and the Justice for Incarcerated Moms Act.