Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SR128 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	III
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. RES. 128
5	5	Recognizing March 14, 2025, as ‘‘Black Midwives Day’’ and the longstanding
6	6	and invaluable contributions of Black midwives to maternal and infant
7	7	health in the United States.
8	8	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
9	9	MARCH14, 2025
10	10	Mr. B
11	11	OOKERsubmitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
12	12	Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
13	13	RESOLUTION
14	14	Recognizing March 14, 2025, as ‘‘Black Midwives Day’’ and
15	15	the longstanding and invaluable contributions of Black
16	16	midwives to maternal and infant health in the United
17	17	States.
18	18	Whereas recognizing March 14, 2025, as ‘‘Black Midwives
19	19	Day’’ underscores the importance of midwifery in helping
20	20	to achieve better maternal health outcomes by addressing
21	21	fundamental gaps in access to high-quality care and mul-
22	22	tiple aspects of well-being;
23	23	Whereas the Black Midwives Day campaign, founded and led
24	24	by the National Black Midwives Alliance in 2023, is a
25	25	day of awareness, activism, education, and community
26	26	building;
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29	29	•SRES 128 IS
30	30	Whereas March 14, 2025, is intended to increase attention
31	31	for the state of Black maternal health in the United
32	32	States, the root causes of poor maternal health outcomes,
33	33	and for community-driven policy, program, and care solu-
34	34	tions;
35	35	Whereas the United States is experiencing a maternity care
36	36	desert crisis in which 2,200,000 women of childbearing
37	37	age live in maternity care deserts where they have no
38	38	hospital or birth center offering maternity care, and no
39	39	obstetric providers;
40	40	Whereas maternity care deserts lead to higher risks of mater-
41	41	nal morbidity and mortality as most complications occur
42	42	in the postpartum period when birthing people are far
43	43	away from their providers;
44	44	Whereas midwife-led care has been shown to result in cost
45	45	savings, reduced medical interventions, lower cesarean
46	46	rates, decreased preterm births, and improved health out-
47	47	comes for both mothers and infants;
48	48	Whereas midwives provide essential maternal healthcare serv-
49	49	ices across diverse settings, including homes, commu-
50	50	nities, hospitals, birth centers, clinics, and health units,
51	51	ensuring accessibility and continuity of care;
52	52	Whereas increasing the number of Black midwives in the
53	53	workforce is critical to addressing maternal health dis-
54	54	parities, as Black midwives offer culturally competent
55	55	care that builds trust, enhances maternal satisfaction,
56	56	and improves health outcomes for Black mothers and
57	57	their infants;
58	58	Whereas incorporating midwives fully into the United States
59	59	maternity care system would reduce maternal health dis-
60	60	parities and address the maternity care desert crisis;
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64	64	Whereas, despite the medicalization of childbirth in the
65	65	United States, the maternal mortality rates in the United
66	66	States are among the highest in the developed world, in-
67	67	creasing rapidly, and disproportionately higher among
68	68	Black birthing people;
69	69	Whereas Black birthing people in the United States suffer
70	70	from life threatening pregnancy complications, known as
71	71	‘‘maternal morbidities’’, twice as often as White birthing
72	72	people;
73	73	Whereas deaths from maternal morbidities have devastating
74	74	effects on Black children and families, and the vast ma-
75	75	jority of material morbidities are entirely preventable
76	76	through assertive efforts to ensure that Black birthing
77	77	people have access to information, services, and supports
78	78	to make their own health care decisions, particularly
79	79	around pregnancy and childbearing;
80	80	Whereas, according to the 2023 Centers for Disease Control
81	81	and Prevention Report, the maternal mortality rate for
82	82	Black women in the United States has continuously in-
83	83	creased to 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared
84	84	to a decreased rate observed for—
85	85	(1) White women, with a rate of 14.5 deaths per
86	86	100,000 live births;
87	87	(2) Hispanic women, with a rate of 12.4 deaths per
88	88	100,000 live births; and
89	89	(3) Asian women, with a rate of 10.8 deaths per
90	90	100,000 live births;
91	91	Whereas the high rates of maternal mortality among Black
92	92	birthing people span across income levels, education lev-
93	93	els, and socioeconomic statuses;
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96	96	•SRES 128 IS
97	97	Whereas structural racism, gender oppression, and the social
98	98	determinants of health inequities experienced by Black
99	99	birthing people in the United States significantly con-
100	100	tribute to the disproportionately high rates of maternal
101	101	mortality and morbidity among Black birthing people;
102	102	Whereas Black birthing people are more likely to report expe-
103	103	riences of disrespect, abuse, and neglect when birthing in
104	104	facility-based settings as compared to White people;
105	105	Whereas Black families benefit from access to Black mid-
106	106	wives to receive culturally sensitive and congruent care
107	107	established through trust and respect, backed with the
108	108	wisdom of time-honored techniques and best practices;
109	109	Whereas the work and contributions of past and present mid-
110	110	wives who have ushered in new life have done so despite
111	111	a history fraught with persecution, enslavement, violence,
112	112	racism, and the systematic erasure of traditional and lay
113	113	Black midwives throughout the 20th century;
114	114	Whereas the decimation of midwifery across the southern
115	115	United States reduced the numbers of Black midwives
116	116	from thousands to dozens in a 50-year period from the
117	117	1920s to the 1970s, leaving many communities without
118	118	care providers;
119	119	Whereas some States have criminalized and suppressed di-
120	120	rect-entry midwives, despite rising maternal mortality
121	121	rates across the United States;
122	122	Whereas the criminalization and overregulation of midwifery
123	123	disproportionately impacts Black midwives and birthing
124	124	families, exacerbating maternal health disparities and re-
125	125	ducing access to culturally competent care;
126	126	Whereas the resurgence of Black midwifery is a testament to
127	127	the resilience, resistance, and determination of spirit in
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131	131	the preservation of healing modalities that are practiced
132	132	all over the world;
133	133	Whereas the focus on holistic care, which involves caring for
134	134	the whole person, family, and community, is what makes
135	135	a difference in midwifery;
136	136	Whereas midwifery honors the right to bodily autonomy of
137	137	the birthing person and can be facilitated at home, in a
138	138	birth center, or hospital, and works in tandem with
139	139	doulas, community health workers, obstetricians, pediatri-
140	140	cians, and other maternal, reproductive, and perinatal
141	141	health care providers;
142	142	Whereas the Midwifery Model of Care has been proven to
143	143	have better pregnancy outcomes through preventing in-
144	144	fant mortality and morbidity, lowering preterm births, re-
145	145	ducing medical interventions, and providing the birthing
146	146	person continuous support;
147	147	Whereas, in 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Ra-
148	148	cial Discrimination (referred to in this preamble as
149	149	‘‘CERD’’) of the United Nations expressed concerns re-
150	150	garding the impact of systemic racism and intersecting
151	151	factors on access to comprehensive sexual and reproduc-
152	152	tive health services for women, and the limited avail-
153	153	ability of culturally sensitive and respectful maternal
154	154	health care, particularly for those with low incomes, rural
155	155	residents, individuals of African descent, and indigenous
156	156	communities;
157	157	Whereas CERD recommended that the United States further
158	158	develop policies and programs to eliminate racial and eth-
159	159	nic disparities in the field of sexual and reproductive
160	160	health and rights, while integrating an intersectional and
161	161	culturally respectful approach in order to reduce the high
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165	165	rates of maternal mortality and morbidity affecting racial
166	166	and ethnic minorities, including through midwifery care;
167	167	Whereas, in 2023, the Human Rights Committee of the
168	168	United Nations expressed similar concerns as CERD and
169	169	further recommended that the United States take meas-
170	170	ures to remove restrictive and discriminatory legal and
171	171	practice barriers to midwifery care, including those af-
172	172	fecting Black and indigenous peoples;
173	173	Whereas a fair distribution of resources, especially with re-
174	174	gard to reproductive health care services, is critical to
175	175	closing the racial disparity gap in maternal health out-
176	176	comes;
177	177	Whereas an investment must be made in robust, quality, and
178	178	comprehensive health care for Black birthing people, with
179	179	policies that support and promote affordable and holistic
180	180	maternal health care that is free from gender and racial
181	181	discrimination;
182	182	Whereas it is fitting and proper on Black Midwives Day to
183	183	recognize the tremendous impact of the human rights, re-
184	184	productive justice, and birth justice frameworks have on
185	185	protecting and advancing the rights of Black birthing
186	186	people;
187	187	Whereas Black Midwives Day is an opportunity to acknowl-
188	188	edge the fight to end maternal mortality locally and glob-
189	189	ally;
190	190	Whereas maternal health is intractably linked to infant
191	191	health, and the United States infant mortality rate rose
192	192	3 percent from a rate of 5.44 infant deaths per 1,000 live
193	193	births in 2021 to 5.60 infant deaths per 1,000 live births
194	194	in 2022, the largest increase in the infant mortality rate
195	195	in 2 decades; and
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199	199	Whereas Congress must mitigate the effects of systemic and
200	200	structural racism to ensure that all Black people have ac-
201	201	cess to midwives, doulas, and other community-based,
202	202	culturally matched perinatal health providers: Now,
203	203	therefore, be it
204	204	Resolved, That the Senate— 1
205	205	(1) recognizes March 14, 2025, as ‘‘Black Mid-2
206	206	wives Day’’; 3
207	207	(2) encourages the Federal Government and 4
208	208	State and local governments to take proactive meas-5
209	209	ures to address racial disparities in maternal health 6
210	210	outcomes by supporting initiatives aimed at diversi-7
211	211	fying the perinatal workforce, increasing access to 8
212	212	culturally congruent maternal health care; 9
213	213	(3) commits to collaborating with relevant 10
214	214	stakeholders to develop and enact policy solutions 11
215	215	that promote health equity, address systemic racism, 12
216	216	and support the advancement of Black midwifery; 13
217	217	(4) calls for— 14
218	218	(A) increased funding for education, train-15
219	219	ing, and access to Black preceptors; 16
220	220	(B) removing barriers and restrictions to 17
221	221	Black preceptors; 18
222	222	(C) providing financial pathways to sup-19
223	223	port students and preceptors; 20
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227	227	(D) mentorship programs that focus on 1
228	228	promoting and sustaining Black midwifery; and 2
229	229	(E) removing barriers related to accredita-3
230	230	tion by recognizing midwives across all training 4
231	231	pathways; 5
232	232	(5) encourages the Federal Government and 6
233	233	State governments to authorize the autonomous 7
234	234	practice of all midwives to the full extent of their 8
235	235	training; 9
236	236	(6) promotes the authorization or reauthoriza-10
237	237	tion of funding for TRICARE and Medicaid cov-11
238	238	erage of maternity care provided by midwives of all 12
239	239	training pathways; 13
240	240	(7) encourages the Federal Government and 14
241	241	State and local governments to take active steps to 15
242	242	destigmatize and decriminalize midwifery pathways 16
243	243	in the setting of choice of the pregnant person, in-17
244	244	cluding their homes, birth centers, clinics, or health 18
245	245	units; and 19
246	246	(8) supports and recognizes the longstanding 20
247	247	and invaluable contributions of Black midwives to 21
248	248	maternal and infant health in the United States. 22
249	249	Æ
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