Ritchie Torres: “I thank my colleague from Ohio (Ms. Brown) for allowing me the opportunity to speak. Madam Speaker, no human need is…”

“I thank my colleague from Ohio (Ms. Brown) for allowing me the opportunity to speak. Madam Speaker, no human need is more important than health. Yet, no need is more neglected by America than Black health. There are two areas on which I am going to offer brief comments. The first is maternal mortality. Among industrialized nations, the United States has among the highest rates of maternal mortality. The crisis of maternal health represents American exceptionalism in the worst sense of the word. America is exceptionally cruel to Black mothers, who, far too often, face fatal barriers to accessing maternal care before, during, and after pregnancy. Although representing only 13 percent of the population, Black women account for nearly 40 percent of maternal deaths. There are racial disparities not only in maternal but also infant mortality. The Black community has a maternal mortality rate and an infant mortality rate that are more than double the mortality rates in the White community. No healthcare program is more critical to maternal health than Medicaid, which pays 40 percent of births nationwide. Attempts by Republican Governors to prevent Medicaid expansion has a disproportionately destructive impact on Black maternal health. What is most tragic is that most maternal deaths in America are preventable and can be prevented with public investments like the Build Back Better Act.…”