John Rice Carter: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Before I begin, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the sponsor of this bill…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Before I begin, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the sponsor of this bill, Dr. Burgess, for his outstanding work in healthcare, especially as a Member of this august body. For many years he has served here, and I know he is going to be retiring at the end of this year, and we are certainly going to miss his leadership, particularly in the healthcare space, and we appreciate him very much. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 3838, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act, which I am co-leading with Dr. Burgess. Maternal mortality is something that I have worked on for many, many years as a member of the Georgia State legislature and now as a Member of Congress. It baffles me as to why Georgia, my home State, would be one of the leading States in the Nation in maternal mortality. I have not been able to get my arms around that and understand why that is, but it is. Our Nation's maternal mortality crisis, which, as I say, severely impacts Georgians, is alarming and trending in the wrong direction. In fact, in Georgia, the maternal mortality rate has increased to over 30 deaths per 100,000 live births. For women of color and people living in rural communities, those numbers are much higher. The United States is trending in the wrong direction, as well, and we need to understand why moms are dying, despite us spending $4.4 trillion on healthcare in 2022.…”