by Anita Teekah, member of NYCWHRAT
The Amnesty International New York City Women’s Human Rights Action Team (NYCWHRAT) recognizes a multitude of women’s rights on a variety of areas. In May, to honor Mother’s Day, we focused awareness on the bipartisan Maternal Health Accountability Act of 2011 (Maternal Health Act), formally known as H.R. 894, a pending legislation before the Subcommittee of Energy and Commerce – Health in the House of Representatives. This Act addresses the reality that American women, regardless of race, socio-economic status or geographic location, are dying in greater numbers from pregnancy complications than women in forty-nine other countries. This is despite that fact that the United States spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world. Tragically (and unfairly), women continue to be left behind. Furthermore, it is perhaps unsurprising that certain women, including minority, low-income and rural women, are disproportionally affected by maternal mortality. For example, African-American women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications compared with Caucasian women.
If passed, the Maternal Health Act would establish maternal mortality review boards in each state to investigate the adequacy of maternal health care provided to women across the United States. Currently, the Maternal Health Act has been sponsored by Representative Conyers (D-MI) and has been co-sponsored by forty-seven (47) Representatives from twenty-five (25) states. Only two (2) Representatives from the New York State have co-sponsored this legislation, including Representative Hinchey (D-NY) and Representative Slaughter (D-NY).
How You Can Help
Amnesty International is urging all New York House Representatives on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee to co-sponsor the Maternal Health Act. The goal is to accumulate sufficient co-sponsors to move the bill out of the Subcommittee and slated for a vote before the entire House of Representatives. Once the bill is successfully passed out of the House, it will need to be introduced via companion Senate legislation by New York Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. Accordingly, Amnesty is also urging Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to introduce companion Senate legislation to the Maternal Health Act.
You can help advocate for passage of this legislation by writing to House Representatives Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), both members of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, and urge them to co-sponsor the Maternal Health Act. Similarly, you are encouraged to write to Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and urge them to introduce companion Senate legislation to the Maternal Health Act. Below are sample letters to both the Representatives and the Senators.
Each letter makes a difference and sends a clear message that pregnancy does not have to be a death sentence. Just as the right to life is a human right, so is the right to bear children. Each year, thousands of children are born and never have the chance to grow up with their mothers who have died so that their children could live. Many of these deaths are preventable. Indeed, these deaths are shameful in a nation considered to be one of the most advanced in the developed world. On behalf of the women whose voices have been silenced by inadequate maternal health care, and in hope for the women whose deaths can be prevented today, please take action now.
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Dear Representative _______________,
I hope that this letter finds you well. I am writing to ask that as a member of Congress, you please co-sponsor the bipartisan Maternal Health Accountability Act of 2011 (H.R. 894). You may or may not be aware that although the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation in the world, women in this country face a greater risk of death from pregnancy complications than women in forty-nine (49) other countries. Furthermore, minority, rural and poor women die in greater numbers than women of Caucasian ethnicity. While these statistics are tragic enough, they still fail to convey the heart-rending consequences of inadequate maternal health care faced by millions of women each day.
Accordingly, please take the time to co-sponsor this Act in Congress, which would establish maternal mortality review boards in each state to investigate the adequacy of maternal health care provided to women across the United States. Your act of leadership will undoubtedly result in saving numerous women’s lives and grant children incredible joy in growing up with their mothers. For too many children today, it is a luxury, rather than a right, to spend their lives with their mothers. You have the power to change this.
Sincerely,
City, State
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Dear Senator _______________,
I hope that this letter finds you well. I am writing to ask that as a member of Congress, you please introduce the bipartisan Maternal Health Accountability Act of 2011 (H.R. 894). You may or may not be aware that although the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation in the world, women in this country face a greater risk of death from pregnancy complications than women in forty-nine (49) other countries. Furthermore, minority, rural and poor women die in greater numbers than women of Caucasian ethnicity. While these statistics are tragic enough, they still fail to convey the heart-rending consequences of inadequate maternal health care faced by millions of women each day.
Accordingly, please take the time to introduce the Senate companion legislation to this Act in Congress, which would establish maternal mortality review boards in each state to investigate the adequacy of maternal health care provided to women across the United States. Your act of leadership will undoubtedly result in saving numerous women’s lives and grant children incredible joy in growing up with their mothers. For too many children today, it is a luxury, rather than a right, to spend their lives with their mothers. You have the power to change this.
Sincerely,
City, State
