Latest news with #MotheringJustice
CBS News
26-05-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Planned Parenthood of Michigan braces for impact of federal cuts
As part of the federal spending reconciliation bill currently heading to the U.S. Senate, which would cut billions of dollars from health care programs, like Medicaid, Planned Parenthood would potentially see immediate effects. "So far, 16 Planned Parenthood affiliates have received notice that they are being forced out of the program, and that the funds for those programs are being frozen," said Ashlea Phenicie, chief external affairs officer for Planned Parenthood of Michigan. While Michigan has yet to get that official notice, Phenicie says the defunding risk has already led to some difficult decisions. "That included closing three health centers — our Marquette, Petoskey and Jackson Health Centers — and we also consolidated our two health centers in Ann Arbor," said Phenicie. Danielle Atkinson with Mothering Justice says those closures mean more than access to abortion care, particularly in low-income communities. "We're talking about cancer screenings, mammograms, checkups, birth control. These are things that most people need and are extremely important to just them being able to do their everyday life," said Atkinson. ACLU Michigan political director Merissa Kovach says these cuts undermine Medicaid as a critical safety net in the state, as nearly 25% of residents rely on it for their healthcare. "This is 2.6 million Michiganders each month. This is a million children. It's 300,000 people living with disabilities. It's 168,000 seniors," said Kovach. Phenicie says Planned Parenthood teams are working to maintain the same level of care as they navigate these Medicaid changes, but worry about who may fall through the cracks. "If they are no longer allowed to use that health coverage at Planned Parenthood, I'm concerned for where else they can go to get that care," said Phenicie. Senate Republicans hope to get the bill passed in their chamber by July 4.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mothering Justice's Mama's March 2025 begins today at State Capitol
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)– Grassroots policy advocacy organization Mothering Justice has held marches for over a decade to champion mothers of color. Today at noon, they'll be at the state Capitol for Mama's March 2025. Organizers say the event is for everyone, even those who don't think they're affected. After the march, people will have the chance to stay for activities. Aisha Wells, the deputy director of campaigns, notes that the marches are important because people don't always realize that they have the power to compel change; lawmakers are elected officials who are accountable to their constituents and not the other way around. The Mama's March is typically held around this time of year in order to coincide with Mother's Day. Mothering Justice's advocacy agenda includes affordable child care, earned and/or paid sick time, and reproductive justice. These issues affect working parents and caregivers as well as moms. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Black maternal health advocates, researchers press on amid federal funding cuts
Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, founder and director of the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice at Tufts University, speaks at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. Black maternal health advocates and researchers worry about federal funding cuts. (Courtesy of Birthlooms) Before everything went black, Tamika Jackson felt like she was drowning. While in labor giving birth to her baby boy, her body felt heavy and her breaths shallow. 'I can't breathe,' she croaked to the anesthesiologist. 'If you couldn't breathe, you wouldn't be able to speak,' she recalled the doctor telling her, dismissing her as having a 'panic attack.' Minutes later, the 37-year-old's lungs gave out. Her heart stopped beating. Clinicians were able to resuscitate Jackson. Her baby boy was born via C-section, and the Michigan mom lived to tell her story of giving birth to Cree, who's turning 3 next month. Jackson is now a maternal health organizer at Mothering Justice, a Michigan-based nonprofit. She spoke with Stateline while on a bus to the Michigan Capitol, where she participated in a Black Maternal Health Week panel and pushed for a legislative package — nicknamed the Michigan Momnibus — which aims to increase obstetric patient protections and improve care for moms of color. The Michigan Senate passed the package Thursday, and it now heads to the House. Black moms like Jackson are three times more likely to die than white mothers and suffer higher rates of pregnancy-related complications. But in its bid to eliminate federal diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives, the Trump administration has terminated community health grants and closed federal offices that support state efforts to tackle racial health disparities. Experts say the moves will hinder efforts to improve Black maternal health. 'DEI is not about politics. It's about survival,' Jackson said. 'This is about community-based solutions — and they're undoing that.' Jackson added that without federal dollars, 'We're going to be left trying to do a whole lot with a whole lot of nothing.' The Trump administration has cut grants for maternal health studies and research on health disparities in various populations, including patients of color and LGBTQ people. It has laid off most staff at the federal Division of Reproductive Health, and removed maternal health data from federal agency websites. It also is considering cutting next year's budget for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from about $121 billion to about $80.4 billion, according to The New York Times. The administration plans to create a new Administration for a Healthy America, which would focus on maternal and child health, among other issues. HHS and its National Institutes of Health did not return requests for comment in time for publication. DEI is not about politics. It's about survival. – Tamika Jackson, Michigan mom and maternal health organizer at Mothering Justice Researchers and advocates like Jackson say that amid the Trump administration's erasures, their work will continue. Among those losing grants are nonprofits, health care systems and universities, including the Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically Black medical school in Atlanta, which received a $2.96 million grant for a center to improve the health of Black pregnant and postpartum women. Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. 'We are reviewing the situation to assess how it may affect our research,' a Morehouse spokesperson wrote in an email. 'More broadly, it is important that we all recognize the critical role medical research plays in developing potential life-saving innovation that will mitigate disease and improve the health and well-being of many people.' The Morehouse center was selected among an initial 10 research centers funded under the NIH's Maternal health and Pregnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone, or 'IMPROVE,' Initiative. Columbia University and community groups throughout New York also received the grants. One goal was to connect postpartum moms with doulas to detect conditions such as postpartum preeclampsia, according to principal investigator Dr. Uma Reddy, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia. Reddy said the grant was developed with communities who voiced their needs. 'We can actually prevent these deaths and these serious complications,' Reddy said. 'This is a way to focus on a high-risk population and provide them with the resources that they don't have available.' Maternal death reviews get political as state officials intrude Tufts University maternal health scholar Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha said she's had several meetings in Washington, D.C., get canceled, and while she's thankful to have almost completed one federal grant project, there's uncertainty about other grants she's applied for, including a Black postpartum support research initiative. The professor runs the Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research (MOTHER) Lab and Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice at the Tufts University School of Medicine. 'It not only stalls progress, but it actually actively endangers the most vulnerable among us,' she said. 'These policy decisions can cause and will cause lasting harm to people who are already underserved by our health care system.' Amutah-Onukagha said she is urging researchers and advocates to have 'cautious optimism.' 'Most people are in the space of gloom and doom. I do get that, and I'm vastly in and out of that,' she said. 'But because of the work that I do in maternal health, we have to remain optimistic. That lens cannot die. If it does, then the communities that we serve are going to be even more disadvantaged.' Amutah-Onukagha, who recently testified before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Health, said her team will continue to work with organizations around the state, such as Birth Equity & Justice Massachusetts and Resilient Sisterhood Project. 'We're stronger in numbers,' she said. Diana Greene Foster, research director in reproductive health at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted the seminal Turnaway Study documenting the harms women suffer from abortion denials. She was in the middle of another study, funded by a federal grant, tracking post-Roe abortions and the efficacy of health exceptions in abortion ban laws. Her team was interviewing emergency room doctors about whether they could provide abortions amid major pregnancy complications such as eclampsia, a serious consequence of preeclampsia, which is a dangerous form of high blood pressure that disproportionately affects Black mothers. The administration pulled her grant. Foster, who is fundraising to continue her study, said she feels the administration's actions send a message of 'turning their back on science, on compassion, on caring about women.' To close racial gap in maternal health, some states take aim at implicit bias Tina Sherman, a doula and national director of maternal justice at MomsRising, a nonpartisan women and mothers advocacy group, said she worries about data the administration has removed, including the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. The surveillance system is a comprehensive tool states use to track maternal health and formulate policies to improve it. 'An attempt to erase the data,' said Sherman, 'doesn't erase the harm that has been done and creates additional harm.' Without data, states can't target where resources are needed and which communities are disproportionately harmed and how, said Sherman, who co-chairs the North Carolina Maternal Mortality Review Committee. 'We're going to be going backwards,' she said. The Trump administration also canceled several grants focused on intimate partner violence, a leading cause of pregnancy-associated death which disproportionately affects people of color. One such grant was supporting a University of North Carolina project studying intimate partner violence against pregnant women shortly before they give birth. 'The issues remain. The urgency is pressing as it ever was. The reality is this: Black mothers and birthing people continue to carry the weight of a crisis that we did not create,' Amutah-Onukagha said. 'We did not create it, but we are leading the fight to solve it and dismantle it, and we know that the systemic barriers existed before this administration. They will continue to show up — but we will also continue to produce cutting-edge research here at the center.' Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Advocates work to address challenges in the health care system for Michigan's Black mothers
Getty Images Creative State Rep. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit) joined Mothering Justice for an event in Lansing to mark Black Maternal Health Week on Wednesday. She said events like the advocacy day organized by Mothering Justice are important to the legislative process. 'Legislation usually starts, unfortunately, when something may have gone wrong or something is under attack,' Young said. 'And we're in a space now where so many things are under attack.' A 'momnibus' bill package that seeks to reduce racial inequities in maternal mortality is currently working its way through the Michigan Senate. While policies in the package had bipartisan support last legislative session, state Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) noted last month when the package was reintroduced that the bills became a 'lame duck casualty of the House' after Republican lawmakers boycotted session in December in protest to minimum and tipped wage reforms not being placed for a vote. Black Maternal Health Statistics In 2023, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly 3.5 times the rate for non-Hispanic White women. (CDC, 2025). In the U.S., Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. CDC notes that more than 80% of pregnancy related deaths are preventable (CDC, 2024) In 2022, the rate of preterm birth among Black women (12.34%) was about 1.5 times higher than the rate of preterm birth among white or Hispanic women, 7.64% and 8.72% respectively. (CDC, 2024) Statistics provided by Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Young said at Wednesday's event that 'just to talk about Black mamas is under attack now.' 'We were okay with lifting it up before, but now it is like a dog whistle for people,' Young said. She said the heightened reactivity has led her to tailor her message to each audience individually. 'I can get what I need to get for Black mamas without saying 'Black mama' sometimes, but I can be in some spaces where that's all I'm going to say. But I just know who I'm dealing with,' Young said. 'So we're learning how to be strategic.' But Young added that Black women face increased challenges in the health care system than their white counterparts, including in being believed when they say something is wrong or that they need medication. 'If a house is on fire on the block with 20 houses, do you stop at the other 19, or do you focus on the one that's in the most jeopardy, the one that's about to go up in flames?' Young said. 'When we talk about Black maternal health, it's because we've been the ones that's been in the most jeopardy of not getting the services that we needed.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
CBS News
17-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Detroit-based organization leads fight for Black maternal health in Michigan
For Danielle Atkinson, motherhood didn't just change her. It fueled a movement. During Black Maternal Health Week, a national campaign to raise awareness and improve outcomes for Black mothers, the Detroit-based organization Mothering Justice is spotlighting what happens when advocacy turns into action. "We're not only calling for change, we're creating it," said Atkinson, founding executive director of Mothering Justice. "Black women are more likely to die during childbirth, have lower-paying jobs, and are often the primary caregivers. That reality demanded action." Atkinson, a mother of six, founded Mothering Justice after struggling to access affordable child care and paid leave during her first pregnancy. What began as a small effort to connect with other moms quickly evolved into a growing movement of organizers and a strong sense of community. "The whole goal of organizing is to organize ourselves out of a job," she said. "That means a world where inequity doesn't exist." Mothering Justice also plays a key role in pushing for legislative change. The group is part of the coalition backing Michigan's "MI Momnibus" bills, a package of legislation focused on closing racial disparities in maternal health care. For Tamika Jackson, a reproductive justice organizer with the group, this work is deeply personal. Jackson shares her traumatic birth experience with lawmakers in Lansing as part of her fight for trauma-free birthing experiences for Black women — who, according to the CDC, are nearly 3.5 times more likely to die from childbirth complications than white women. "On May 14, 2022, during what was supposed to be a routine epidural, my anesthesiologist made a mistake," Jackson said, speaking to lawmakers in Lansing. "I suffocated during labor. I coded. I was put on life support and had an emergency C-section. I survived, but just barely." Since launching in 2012, Mothering Justice has expanded its impact beyond Michigan, building coalitions, pushing for policy change and amplifying the voices of Black mothers across the country. "We built power with Black women and Black people," Jackson said. "And we took that power not only to our state capitol but to our country's capitol." Visit Mothering Justice's website for more information.
