Steve Cohen: “September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month, and it's appropriate that this month this bill will be brought up for…”

“September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month, and it's appropriate that this month this bill will be brought up for consideration, the NEWBORN Act. ``NEWBORN'' is an acronym. Everything in Washington seems to be an acronym, and this acronym, ``NEWBORN,'' stands for ``Nationally Enhancing the Wellbeing of Babies through Outreach and Research Now.'' It is so important that we give children an opportunity to live and mothers and fathers an opportunity to see their children born and have a chance. My parents lost a child at about 4 months of age in 1946. They never got over it. There are so many people who have lost children, and it is something that stays with you forever. In my particular city of Memphis--while we talked about the United States' rate, we know it is too high no matter what it is and how you keep statistics--the city of Memphis has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the Nation.”