Ayanna Pressley: “It is an honor to be here to mark National Minority Health Awareness Month and to do so shoulder to shoulder with two of…”

“It is an honor to be here to mark National Minority Health Awareness Month and to do so shoulder to shoulder with two of my esteemed colleagues, Mr. Clyburn and Congresswoman McClellan. Thank you both for the strength of your convictions. Mr. Speaker, today in America the color of your skin and the ZIP code you are born into are critical determinants of health. I represent Massachusetts' Seventh Congressional District where in a 3-mile radius from Cambridge to Roxbury, the Blackest part of my district, life expectancy drops by 30 years. Now, some have tired of hearing these sobering statistics, but I will enumerate them time and again until they change. If you are tired of hearing them, imagine how tired people are of living them. These health disparities persist despite the fact that we in Massachusetts are home to some of the finest hospitals and brightest minds in healthcare worldwide. In the Congressional Black Caucus, we are daily organizing and legislating towards a different vision: one of true healthcare justice, a vision where Black men can grow old, where birth is safe and sacred, where every baby has clean air to breathe and safe water to drink, where health equity is a given and not an afterthought, where Black pain is believed. As we stay head down working toward that vision, the status quo is stark. In 2023, the Boston Public Health Commission reported that diabetes mortality for Black women was three times that of White women.…”