A Dangerous Shift in Maternal Health Policy |
More than 85% of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable. Yet last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate, defending a budget that would eliminate Title X, Healthy Start, and the CDC’s Safe Motherhood and Infant Health Portfolio: the very programs designed to prevent maternal deaths and keep infants healthy. Earlier this year, the House passed legislation to funnel federal dollars toward unregulated pregnancy centers that largely lack medical licensure and rarely provide actual prenatal care. The Supreme Court also recently ruled that anti-abortion centers can proceed with a legal challenge to a state subpoena of fundraising records.
What’s being built is not a pro-family policy. It’s a crisis—one that will fall hardest on Black women and their children. Instead of fueling this crisis, policymakers should focus on the evidence-based policy path to support healthy moms and babies: protect Medicaid, strengthen programs like Title X and Healthy Start, and direct public funds to providers that meet clinical standards for care.
The prenatal and maternity care crisis
The United States already has the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income country, the majority of which are considered preventable with early, consistent prenatal care. This care reduces the risk of hypertension, anemia, gestational diabetes, low birthweight, and death. Yet access to early prenatal care has been declining overall, with the sharpest drops among women of color. In 2024, only about 68% of Hispanic women and just over 65% of Black women accessed early prenatal care, compared to more than 82% of white women.
Barriers to prenatal care existed long before the current administration. A 2023 March of Dimes report found that one in 12 women live in maternity care deserts, areas devoid of necessary perinatal care. In 2024, more than a quarter of women of reproductive age with young children reported difficulty finding reliable maternity care, with even higher rates in states with abortion restrictions.
Dismantling the coverage infrastructure
Despite the maternal........