On the recordMay 9, 2019
First of all, let me thank Congresswoman Alma Adams for gathering us a couple of weeks ago to stand and be counted as members of the Black Maternal Mortality Caucus; and to continue her recognition that if we don't become problem solvers the problems will continue. So I want to join with my colleagues, and, in particular, Congresswoman Adams and Congresswoman Lee, both of whom I knew in the time that they were going through the loss of their moms. A mom and a mother are always a mom and a mother, so let me, in the name of my late mother, who I continue to remember, Ivalita Bennett Jackson, indicate that we stand here in your name and in the names of young mothers around the Nation and young mothers-to-be. I don't believe we could be doing a more important task than what we are doing, to not only bring relevance and substance to this question of why Black women, African American women, suffer more with maternal mortality and infant mortality; because we know what happens when that bond is broken by death or sickness, particularly in the infant stages of a young child's life. So I want to remind us of the beauty of pregnancy, and particularly, those pregnancies that these young women are certainly evidencing, just the beauty of the spirit, the softness of their faces and the contours of their body, excitement. If you have been around a pregnant expectant mother, meaning expectant of joy and excitement, then you understand. Should they not live?…
