Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HR231 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	IV
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. RES. 231
5	5	Recognizing the longstanding and invaluable contributions of Black midwives
6	6	to maternal and infant health in the United States.
7	7	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
8	8	MARCH18, 2025
9	9	Ms. M
10	10	OOREof Wisconsin (for herself, Ms. ADAMS, and Ms. UNDERWOOD)
11	11	submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
12	12	on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Armed
13	13	Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
14	14	each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
15	15	tion of the committee concerned
16	16	RESOLUTION
17	17	Recognizing the longstanding and invaluable contributions
18	18	of Black midwives to maternal and infant health in the
19	19	United States.
20	20	Whereas recognizing the day of March 14, 2025, as ‘‘Black
21	21	Midwives Day’’ underscores the importance of midwifery
22	22	in helping to achieve better maternal health outcomes by
23	23	addressing fundamental gaps in access to high-quality
24	24	care and multiple aspects of well-being;
25	25	Whereas the Black Midwives Day campaign, founded in 2023
26	26	and led by the National Black Midwives Alliance, estab-
27	27	lishes Black Midwives Day as a day of awareness, activ-
28	28	ism, education, and community building;
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31	31	•HRES 231 IH
32	32	Whereas this day is intended to increase attention for the
33	33	state of Black maternal health in the United States, the
34	34	root causes of poor maternal health outcomes, and for
35	35	community-driven policies, programs, and care solutions;
36	36	Whereas the United States is experiencing a maternity care
37	37	desert crisis in which 2,200,000 women of childbearing
38	38	age live in maternity care deserts where they do not have
39	39	access to hospitals or birth centers offering maternity
40	40	care or obstetric providers;
41	41	Whereas maternity care deserts lead to higher risks of mater-
42	42	nal morbidity and mortality as most complications occur
43	43	in the postpartum period when birthing people are far
44	44	away from their providers;
45	45	Whereas midwife-led care has been shown to result in cost
46	46	savings, reduced medical interventions, lower cesarean
47	47	rates, decreased preterm births, and improved health out-
48	48	comes for both mothers and infants;
49	49	Whereas midwives provide essential maternal health care
50	50	services across diverse settings, including homes, commu-
51	51	nities, hospitals, birth centers, clinics, and health units,
52	52	ensuring accessibility and continuity of care;
53	53	Whereas increasing the number of Black midwives in the
54	54	workforce is critical to addressing maternal health dis-
55	55	parities, as Black midwives offer culturally competent
56	56	care that builds trust, enhances maternal satisfaction,
57	57	and improves health outcomes for Black mothers and
58	58	their infants;
59	59	Whereas incorporating midwives fully into the United States
60	60	maternity care system would reduce maternal health dis-
61	61	parities and help to address the maternity care desert cri-
62	62	sis;
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65	65	•HRES 231 IH
66	66	Whereas, despite the medicalization of childbirth in the
67	67	United States, the maternal mortality rates in the United
68	68	States are among the highest in the high income coun-
69	69	tries, increasing rapidly, and disproportionately higher
70	70	among Black birthing people;
71	71	Whereas Black birthing people in the United States suffer
72	72	from life-threatening pregnancy complications, known as
73	73	‘‘maternal morbidities’’, twice as often as White birthing
74	74	people;
75	75	Whereas these deaths have devastating effects on Black chil-
76	76	dren and families, and the vast majority are entirely pre-
77	77	ventable through assertive efforts to ensure Black birth-
78	78	ing people have access to information, services, and sup-
79	79	ports to make their own health care decisions, particu-
80	80	larly around pregnancy and childbearing;
81	81	Whereas, according to a 2023 Centers for Disease Control
82	82	and Prevention Report, the United States maternal mor-
83	83	tality rate for Black women has continuously increased to
84	84	50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to the de-
85	85	creased rate for White (14.5), Hispanic (12.4), and
86	86	Asians (10.7) women;
87	87	Whereas the high rates of maternal mortality among Black
88	88	birthing people span across income levels, education lev-
89	89	els, and socioeconomic statuses;
90	90	Whereas structural racism, gender oppression, and the social
91	91	determinants of health inequities experienced by Black
92	92	birthing people in the United States significantly con-
93	93	tribute to the disproportionately high rates of maternal
94	94	mortality and morbidity among Black birthing people;
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97	97	•HRES 231 IH
98	98	Whereas Black birthing people are more likely to report expe-
99	99	riences of disrespect, abuse, and neglect when birthing in
100	100	facility-based settings as compared to White people;
101	101	Whereas Black families benefit from access to Black mid-
102	102	wives to receive culturally sensitive and congruent care
103	103	established through trust and respect, backed with the
104	104	wisdom of time-honored techniques and best practices;
105	105	Whereas the work and contributions of past and present mid-
106	106	wives have ushered in new life have done so despite a his-
107	107	tory fraught with persecution, enslavement, violence, rac-
108	108	ism, and the systematic erasure of traditional and lay
109	109	Black midwives throughout the 20th century;
110	110	Whereas the decimation of midwifery across the Southern
111	111	United States reduced the numbers of Black midwives
112	112	from thousands to dozens in a 50-year period from the
113	113	1920s to the 1970s, leaving many communities without
114	114	care providers;
115	115	Whereas some States have criminalized and suppressed di-
116	116	rect-entry midwives, despite rising maternal mortality
117	117	rates across the United States;
118	118	Whereas the criminalization and overregulation of midwifery
119	119	disproportionately impacts Black midwives and birthing
120	120	families, exacerbating maternal health disparities and re-
121	121	ducing access to culturally competent care;
122	122	Whereas the resurgence of Black midwifery is a testament to
123	123	the resilience, resistance, and determination of spirit in
124	124	the preservation of healing modalities that are practiced
125	125	all over the world;
126	126	Whereas the focus on holistic care, which involves caring for
127	127	the whole person, family, and community, is what makes
128	128	a difference in midwifery;
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131	131	•HRES 231 IH
132	132	Whereas midwifery—
133	133	(1) honors a birthing person’s right to bodily auton-
134	134	omy; and
135	135	(2) can be facilitated at home, in a birth center, or
136	136	hospital, and works in tandem with doulas, community
137	137	health workers, obstetricians, pediatricians, and other
138	138	maternal, reproductive, and perinatal health care pro-
139	139	viders;
140	140	Whereas the Midwifery Model of Care has been proven to
141	141	have better pregnancy outcomes through preventing in-
142	142	fant mortality and morbidity, lowering preterm births, re-
143	143	ducing medical interventions, and providing the birthing
144	144	person continuous support;
145	145	Whereas, in 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Ra-
146	146	cial Discrimination (referred to in this preamble as
147	147	‘‘CERD’’) of the United Nations expressed concerns re-
148	148	garding the impact of systemic racism and intersecting
149	149	factors on access to comprehensive sexual and reproduc-
150	150	tive health services for women, and the limited avail-
151	151	ability of culturally sensitive and respectful maternal
152	152	health care, particularly for those with low incomes, rural
153	153	residents, individuals of African descent, and Indigenous
154	154	communities;
155	155	Whereas CERD recommended that the United States further
156	156	develop policies and programs to eliminate racial and eth-
157	157	nic disparities in the field of sexual and reproductive
158	158	health and rights, while integrating an intersectional and
159	159	culturally respectful approach in order to reduce the high
160	160	rates of maternal mortality and morbidity affecting racial
161	161	and ethnic minorities, including through midwifery care;
162	162	Whereas, in 2023, the Human Rights Committee of the
163	163	United Nations expressed similar concerns as CERD and
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166	166	•HRES 231 IH
167	167	further recommended that the United States take meas-
168	168	ures to remove restrictive and discriminatory legal and
169	169	practice barriers to midwifery care, including those af-
170	170	fecting Black and Indigenous peoples;
171	171	Whereas a fair distribution of resources, especially with re-
172	172	gard to reproductive health care services, is critical to
173	173	closing the racial disparity gap;
174	174	Whereas an investment must be made in robust, quality, and
175	175	comprehensive health care for Black birthing people, and
176	176	policies that support and promote affordable, holistic ma-
177	177	ternal health care that is free from gender and racial dis-
178	178	crimination;
179	179	Whereas it is fitting and proper on Black Midwives Day to
180	180	recognize the tremendous impact of the human rights, re-
181	181	productive justice, and birth justice frameworks on pro-
182	182	tecting and advancing the rights of Black birthing people;
183	183	Whereas Black Midwives Day is an opportunity to acknowl-
184	184	edge the fight to end maternal mortality locally and glob-
185	185	ally;
186	186	Whereas maternal health is intractably linked to infant health
187	187	and the United States infant mortality rate rose 3 per-
188	188	cent from a rate of 5.44 infant deaths per 1,000 live
189	189	births in 2021 to 5.60 infant deaths per 1,000 live births
190	190	in 2022, the largest increase in the infant mortality rate
191	191	in two decades; and
192	192	Whereas Congress must mitigate the effects of systemic and
193	193	structural racism, to ensure that all Black people have
194	194	access to midwives, doulas, and other community-based,
195	195	culturally matched perinatal health providers: Now,
196	196	therefore, be it
197	197	Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1
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200	200	•HRES 231 IH
201	201	(1) encourages Federal, State, and local govern-1
202	202	ments to take proactive measures to address racial 2
203	203	disparities in maternal health outcomes by sup-3
204	204	porting initiatives aimed at diversifying the perinatal 4
205	205	workforce, increasing access to culturally congruent 5
206	206	maternal health care; 6
207	207	(2) commits to collaborating with relevant 7
208	208	stakeholders to develop and enact policy solutions 8
209	209	that promote health equity, address systemic racism, 9
210	210	and support the advancement of Black midwifery; 10
211	211	(3) calls for increased funding for education 11
212	212	and training, increased access to Black preceptors, 12
213	213	removing barriers and restrictions to said precep-13
214	214	tors, providing financial pathways to support stu-14
215	215	dents and preceptors, and mentorship programs that 15
216	216	focus on promoting and sustaining Black midwifery 16
217	217	and removing barriers related to accreditation by 17
218	218	recognizing midwives across all training pathways; 18
219	219	(4) encourages Federal and State governments 19
220	220	to authorize the autonomous practice of all midwives 20
221	221	to the full extent of their training; 21
222	222	(5) promotes the authorization or reauthoriza-22
223	223	tion of funding for TRICARE and Medicaid cov-23
224	224	erage of maternity care provided by midwives of all 24
225	225	training pathways; 25
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228	228	•HRES 231 IH
229	229	(6) encourages Federal, State, and local govern-1
230	230	ments to take active steps to destigmatize and de-2
231	231	criminalize midwifery pathways in the pregnant per-3
232	232	son’s setting of choice, including their homes, birth 4
233	233	centers, clinics, or health units; and 5
234	234	(7) supports and recognizes the longstanding 6
235	235	and invaluable contributions of Black midwives to 7
236	236	maternal and infant health in the United States. 8
237	237	Æ
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