Georgia Democrats Highlight Stakes for Black Maternal Health Care in 2024

Rep. Lydia Glaize: “Through this election for our next president, this will be a primary issue for women: our reproductive health is not up for grabs.”

Today, on the final day of Black Maternal Health Week, Georgia Democrats held a press call outlining what’s at stake for Black maternal health care in the 2024 election.

Georgia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, with Black women being three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. Speakers discussed how Republicans have exacerbated Georgia’s maternal mortality crisis by restricting reproductive care and refusing to expand Medicaid. Speakers also contrasted Republicans’ attacks on maternal health care with President Biden and Democrats’ work to tackle the Black maternal health crisis by protecting reproductive freedom and expanding access to health care.

“[Georgia has] one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and black Georgians [are] three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. There are policies that could help that don’t get passed; that don’t get hearings. And so let’s just be clear: Georgia’s worsening maternal mortality crisis is a policy choice, and it’s one that the GOP continues to make. Our state’s extreme abortion ban forces providers to actually wait until patients are experiencing life-threatening medical concerns to provide care,” said State Rep. Park Cannon, a certified doula. “While these GOP members are making the maternal mortality crisis worse, I have been glad to serve under the Biden-Harris administration, because they’ve paid attention and they actually support it with a blueprint – ways to address the maternal health crisis. They’ve been fighting for access to contraception, medication abortion, emergency medical care, things that invest in hiring, and deploying a more diverse maternal health workforce.”

“Black women in particular, I would like to speak for because I’ve had four pregnancies. Two of them were critical. But I’m living in a different time where women’s reproductive rights have actually been decimated – where Medicaid expansion continues to be not on the table for Republicans in Georgia… We can no longer sit at tables where Medicaid expansion for Georgia is not on the table, because we know the very lives of women who are birthing their children, and after birthing their child, are at stake,” said State Rep. Lydia Glaize. “What do we need to do in Georgia? We must expand Medicaid.” 

“In this election for the next President of the United States of America, We’ve got to choose the Biden and Harris administration because of their responsiveness to health care throughout America,” continued Rep. Glaize. “And through this election for our next president, this will be a primary issue for women: that our reproductive health is not up for grabs.”

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