U.S. Maternal Health & Rights Initiative

The U.S. continues to face a maternal health crisis, with rates of maternal deaths continuing to rise. The crisis disproportionately impacts Black women, who are nearly three times more likely to die than white women from pregnancy complications. Multiple factors contribute to the disparities that Black women experience, including structural racism, biased and discriminatory treatment from providers, limited access to quality care, and broader inequities in health that can lead to complications during pregnancy. 

The Center’s Maternal Health & Rights Initiative promotes the human rights of pregnant, birthing, and postpartum people in the United States. Harnessing the power of law, policy, and strategic advocacy, the Initiative seeks to improve access to safe and respectful maternal health care for all who need it, and to ensure that all people have an opportunity to attain the highest standard of maternal health possible for themselves.

The Initiative’s three main priorities are ensuring high quality data collection, fighting for access to safe and respectful comprehensive maternal health care, and addressing racism within and beyond the health care system. 

The Center and its partners advocate for policies including:

• Extending Medicaid coverage to at least one year after pregnancy ends.
• State and federal bills that expand access to culturally aligned pregnancy and postpartum care by increasing the diversity of the healthcare workforce and removing legal barriers to practice for skilled midwives of all backgrounds.
• Measures that ensure affordable access to, and fair compensation of, community-based doulas and midwives.

The U.S. Maternal Health & Rights Initiative also provides advocates, lawmakers, and leaders with human rights-based advocacy tools that they can use to catalyze policy change at the local, state and federal level.

• Raising Awareness: 2025 Black Maternal Health Week, 04.11.25
• “Let’s Talk Repro” Series: Breana Lipscomb, Senior Advisor for Maternal Health & Rights, 04.13.23
• U.S. Maternal Health Issues, 12.21.22
• Center Joins to Petition the FDA to Improve Treatment for Miscarriage Care, 10.06.22
• UN Body Urges U.S. to Ensure Abortion Access and Culturally Respectful Maternal Health Care in Efforts to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, 09.12.22
• Systemic Racism and Reproductive Injustice in the United States, 07.15.22
• Video Replay: “Mental Health Burden of In/Fertility,” a Virtual Event for Black Maternal Mental Health Week, 07.11.22

• Black Mamas Matter Alliance