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'Put your money where your mouth is': Black health advocates stress need for funding

Apr. 17—Ahead of the Ohio Senate's deliberations on the state budget, chamber Democrats and Black health advocates are encouraging the state to "put your money where your mouth is" during this budget cycle. "We talk a whole lot about caring about families, caring about children, teaching them how to read — but they gotta live before they can start to read," said state Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati, joint chair of the Ohio legislature's Black Maternal Health Caucus. Ingram was joined by co-chair Sen. Paula Hicks Hudson, a Toledo Democrat who will be the party's top budget negotiator when the Senate picks up the budget later this month. The two used a statehouse press conference to cap off their inaugural Black Maternal Health Summit, aimed in large part at addressing the disparities between infant and maternal health outcomes between white and Black families. A press statement from the summit relays that Black women in Ohio are nearly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, and that Black infants die at more than twice the rate of white infants. "These disparities are rooted in long-standing structural inequities — not differences in biology — and are preventable with intentional investment and policy change," the statement reads. Caitlin Feldman, policy director for the early childhood advocacy organization Groundwork Ohio, told reporters: "it is far past time for Ohio to be lifted out of the basement when it comes to infant and maternal health outcomes." Feldman called for the Senate to counteract several changes the House made to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's proposed budget. Those include a $22 million decrease in funding toward Ohio's Help Me Grow home visitation program and the cancellation of a governor-proposed plan to create an up-to $1,000 tax credit for every Ohio child under seven years old. ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.