NAACP Supports an Aggressive Approach to Maternal and Infant Mortality Disparities in the United States

Adopted as amended

WHEREAS, the United States ranks 41st in the world for risk of maternal death, with two to three women dying every day, hundreds every year, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that half of these deaths are preventable; and 

WHEREAS, African-American women are nearly four times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women, and in high-risk pregnancies, African-American women are five and a half times more likely to die than white women; and 

WHEREAS, African-American women are two and a half times more likely than white women to receive late or no prenatal care, and women with no prenatal care are nearly four times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth related complications; and 

WHEREAS, twenty-one states deny pregnant women temporary access to medical care under Medicaid while their permanent application is being reviewed – i.e., they do not have "presumptive eligibility"; and 

WHEREAS, on May 6, 2010, Amnesty International released a report entitled "Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA" which definitively shows the deadly racial and ethnic disparities. 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP issues a national call to action to the entire African-American community and our allies to mobilize to end the maternal and to end infant mortality crisis in the United States, among women of color, by advocating for greater funding for Maternal Health Programs at the federal and state levels; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP bring awareness to the racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health care, demanding legislators and the Department of Health and Human Services to enhance federal resources, and encourage the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health to focus more aggressively on the issue of maternal and to end infant mortality crisis in the United States; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP National Health Department in concert with Women in the NAACP (WIN) begin outreach and education activities related to the topic of maternal health care and the right of women to access timely prenatal care; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP demands that the Department of Justice and the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services use existing anti-discrimination provisions under Title VI in an effort to end racial discrimination in the provision of maternal health care services; and 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP mobilizes its Members to advocate for the establishment of presumptive eligibility for Medicaid in all 50 States and the District of Columbia.