Lois Capps: “I thank my dear colleague, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise…”

“I thank my dear colleague, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1209, the Improving Access to Maternity Care Act, which I am proud to have coauthored with my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess). We know that healthy women make healthy moms, and healthy moms make healthy babies. To support these women throughout their lives, they need access to preconception, prenatal, postpartum, and interpartum care--interpartum being that time between one child and the next, should there be another child. But too many communities lack the skilled maternity care professionals who are able to provide these services, and that is what this bill would address. H.R. 1209 would harness the power of the National Health Service Corps to better target maternity care to the communities that need this care the most. Maternity care professionals are already included in the program and doing great work in communities across the country. But at present, these providers' placement is based on data related to primary care access shortages, without regard to the specific maternity care which may be needed. So while they are doing important work, there is more that we can, and should, do to ensure that they reach the areas that would benefit most from high-quality maternity care.…”