Harris’ bill seeks to address racial bias in maternal care

Advertisement

Advertise with us

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is offering a new bill to address racial disparities in maternal health care, one of several plans by 2020 Democratic presidential candidates on the issue.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/05/2019 (2645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is offering a new bill to address racial disparities in maternal health care, one of several plans by 2020 Democratic presidential candidates on the issue.

Harris’ bill, first introduced in 2018, would create some $150 million in grant programs to medical schools and states to fight implicit racial bias in health care for women. The legislation, co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., is aimed at improving medical care for groups of women who, research suggests, might be denied first rate care because of their race.

The government confirmed this month that black women who bear children die at a rate that is three times higher than that of white women. Native American and Alaskan women die at a rate that is 2 1/2 times higher than that of white women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 700 women in the U.S. die from pregnancy-related complications annually.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., talks during her first campaign organizing event at Los Angeles Southwest College in Los Angeles, Sunday, May 19, 2019. ((AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., talks during her first campaign organizing event at Los Angeles Southwest College in Los Angeles, Sunday, May 19, 2019. ((AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Tennis star Serena Williams raised the profile on the issue last year, saying the birth of her daughter via C-section was harrowing, in part because medical professionals second-guessed her when she complained of a shortness of breath. In a Vogue magazine interview in 2018, Williams discussed developing several small blood clots in her lungs while in the hospital after Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. was born in September 2017. In the interview, Williams said she requested a CT scan, only to be given an ultrasound of her legs. The episode was seen by some as evidence that even an elite athlete who is black can have trouble getting the care that she needs.

Other Democratic presidential candidates including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have proposed bills aimed at improving maternal care. Last month, Warren published an op-ed further detailing her maternal mortality plan in Essence, the country’s only magazine for black women with a circulation of more than 1 million. Warren’s plan would incentivize health systems for successful outcomes of “episodes” of care, the cost of which would be set at one price.

Harris launched her presidential campaign in January.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., responds to a question during a Hispanics in Politics event at the Dona Maria Tamales restaurant in Las Vegas, Thursday, May 16, 2019. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., responds to a question during a Hispanics in Politics event at the Dona Maria Tamales restaurant in Las Vegas, Thursday, May 16, 2019. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)
Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Pair of banks abandoning Brandon’s downtown

Abiola Odutola 3 minute read Preview

Pair of banks abandoning Brandon’s downtown

Abiola Odutola 3 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Two of Canada’s major banks are set to relocate from their longstanding downtown Brandon locations in October.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

A grand jeté of climate-change denial

Gwynne Dyer 5 minute read Preview

A grand jeté of climate-change denial

Gwynne Dyer 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

The first hurricane to hit Hawaii in 34 years. The Mediterranean on fire from Spain to Greece. ‘Heat domes’ one after another for months on end in Europe and North America. Thousands of excess deaths. A record El Niño piled on top of an average global temperature up from +1.2 C five years ago. Predicted high for this year: +1.7 C.

Surely they’ll get it now, you think — but no, they won’t. It once seemed sensible to think that when the climate damage gets bad enough and the trend line becomes impossible to ignore, ‘they’ (meaning the climate change deniers and their fellow travellers) will finally accept that the threat is real and urgent action is necessary.

A few of them will, but most will not.

It is becoming clear that as the old position of flat disbelief in climate science becomes untenable, the preferred response among former deniers is to admit that climate change is big, dangerous and already well underway — but to insist that it is already too late and nothing can be done about it now.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Best to fess up about grandkid-sitting fatigue

Maureen Scurfield 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: We love our grandchildren, but now we’re sick of them. The two sets of parents — our adult children — have been parking their kids out here on the farm with us while they take back-to-back road trips to see their friends. We’ve had enough.

Grandma and I want them to come back and get the “brats” (just joking, they’re nice kids) so we can relax.

You have to be so careful with city kids around the farm who don’t know when they’re going to make a mistake and get hoofed by an animal or run over by a farm implement.

How do we tell our kids the party is over early, and they really need to come back before grandma and I give out?

Men accused in commercial break-in spree were wearing ankle bracelets

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Preview

Men accused in commercial break-in spree were wearing ankle bracelets

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:28 PM CDT

Two men in electric ankle bracelets who were being monitored by justice officials have been accused in a two-month spree of commercial break-ins, vehicle thefts and other property crimes.

City police have charged one of the suspects and are searching for the second.

About $140,000 worth of property, including trailers, lawn equipment, motorcycles and bicycles, was reported stolen in 13 incidents in Winnipeg and the Rural Municipality of Headingley between April 20 and June 28, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

Both suspects were wearing electronic monitoring bracelets during that time.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 6:28 PM CDT

Trustees call for e-scooter safety education

Maggie Macintosh 4 minute read Preview

Trustees call for e-scooter safety education

Maggie Macintosh 4 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

School trustees are calling on the province to bolster public education around e-bike and e-scooter safety ahead of back-to-school season.

The Manitoba School Boards Association brought members’ concerns about a growing number of students using electronic devices to get to and from classes to the education minister’s office this month.

“There’s a concerning lack of safety knowledge on the part of Manitoba youth,” executive director Alan Campbell said.

Campbell, a long-time trustee in the Interlake School Division, resigned from elected office this summer to run the association that mobilizes school boards and provides them with labour relations support.

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

‘You vote with your bike’: cyclists celebrate freedoms, call for increased safety

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Preview

‘You vote with your bike’: cyclists celebrate freedoms, call for increased safety

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 9:24 AM CDT

Patty Wiens got dressed up in her sparkly, hot pink cowboy boots to pedal and talk politics with more than 100 other people on Sunday.

The founder of Winnipeg’s Fancy Women Bike Ride called on attendees of the 2026 event to ask candidates in the upcoming civic election — a half-dozen of whom were in attendance — about their active transportation platforms.

“We’re here today, in an election year, to remind you that you vote with your bike,” Wiens told a crowd of nearly 120 cyclists gathered on the legislature grounds for the group ride.

“When (city council) candidates come to your door and ask what’s important to you, you’re going to say, ‘I want to ride my bike safely in the city. What are you going to do about it?’”

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 9:24 AM CDT