Search results
Jan 28, 2024 · U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy dodged a political bullet when state legislators agreed two weeks ago to let independents vote in a new, closed congressional primary system. For a time, it appeared as...
- Overview
- Why are Black maternal mortality rates high?
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is under fire for comments he made about the state of Black maternal health in an interview with Politico last week.
Cassidy said that while Black people make up a third of the state’s population and experience higher rates of pregnancy-related deaths, “if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear.”
“Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality,” Cassidy told Politico for the Harvard Chan School of Public Health series Public Health on the Brink.
Cassidy also attributed the disproportionate rates to how the state defines pregnancy-related deaths.
“Sometimes maternal mortality includes up to a year after birth and would include someone being killed by her boyfriend,” Cassidy said. “In my mind, it’s better to restrict your definition to that which is the perinatal, if you will — the time just before and in the subsequent period after she has delivered.”
Louisiana has some of the highest Black maternal death rates in the country. A report from the state’s health department shows that four Black mothers die for every white mother and two Black babies die for every one white baby. In the United States, Black mothers are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white mothers.
Black pregnant women continue to face disproportionately high pregnancy-related deaths, with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating a 26 percent increase in the maternal mortality rate for Black women since the start of the pandemic.
Though researchers do not have an explanation for the disparities, the research suggests it's a culmination of institutional racism and other health factors, such as the increased risk of obesity and hypertension in Black women. Howell also added that stress and a lack of access to quality prenatal care further exacerbates this issue.
“It really does boil down to how public health officials relate to Black women who are giving birth,” Howell said. “Statistics about Black maternal mortality are high across the board, no matter what your educational level is, no matter what your insurance level is.”
In 2018, tennis star Serena Williams opened up in an interview with Vogue magazine about encountering severe health complications after giving birth because doctors neglected to listen about her existing medical conditions.
“When you have someone like Serena Williams having problems giving birth, and not being treated properly by nurses and doctors when she complains about not feeling well, then you look at the doctor of someone who is poor in Louisiana, and has the same kind of problem — they are probably treated even worse,” Howell said.
Cassidy is also facing backlash on social media. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., criticized the official Friday for his comments.
Jan 5, 2024 · News • Press Releases. January 5, 2024. Cassidy Delivers: Senator Releases List of 2023 Legislative Accomplishments. WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) today released a list of his top accomplishments in 2023 including securing more than $3 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) last year benefitting ...
Sep 12, 2023 · WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced the first bipartisan, bicameral push in decades to reform the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which has not been updated in nearly 40 years and currently punishes older and disabled Americans for saving for emergencies and their futures.
May 12, 2023 · Sen. Bill Cassidy, a gastroenterologist by trade, is comfortable doing uncomfortable things, so it's no surprise he's trying to lead an effort in Congress to protect Social Security,...
If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill.
People also ask
Is Bill Cassidy trying to protect Social Security?
Who is Bill Cassidy?
Did Bill Cassidy Dodge a political bullet?
Does Cassidy support the Maternal Health Quality Improvement Act?
Jan 1, 2022 · Cassidy and Hassan successfully passed the No Surprises Act into law as part of the December 2020 government funding bill, which required that the Department of Health and Human Services implement the bill starting January 1, 2022. “This is a milestone in our effort to lower health care costs.
