This week, in Flint, Maya Harris–Vice President Harris’ sister and family surrogate for the Harris-Walz campaign—moderated a roundtable on Black maternal health with national and local leaders, including U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler (D-CA), U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14), Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, and two women impacted by Trump’s extreme abortion bans and attacks on reproductive freedom—Nancy Davis and Latorya Beasley. The speakers discussed what’s at stake for Black families and maternal health in the 2024 presidential election as part of the Michigan Team Harris-Walz’s “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour. This roundtable comes on the heels of ProPublica’s reporting on the preventable deaths of two women under Georgia’s Trump abortion ban.
While Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will restore the protections of Roe v. Wade when Congress passes a bill to do so — the Project 2025 agenda will ban abortion nationwide — overriding state protections in Michigan and making the delivery room even more dangerous for Black women — restrict access to birth control, force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions, and jeopardize access to IVF.
“How can we tolerate that Black women are nearly three times as likely to die during childbirth?” said Maya Harris. “For Kamala, that’s unconscionable. It’s unconscionable, and it’s why she brought reproductive justice leaders to the White House. It’s why she’s listened to women and birth workers. It’s why she’s made Black maternal health a priority as a Senator and as a leader in this administration, and it’s why I know that as President, she will not rest until we tackle this crisis once and for all…
“… When Roe v. Wade was overturned, and I dare say we can all remember where we were when that happened, it ushered in extreme abortion bans across the country. It was an attack. It was an attack on women. It was an escalated attack on Black women. Right now, more than half of Black women of reproductive age in this country live under a Trump abortion ban,” said Paula Thornton Greear, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Michigan.
Greear added: “Vice President Harris has been a champion of reproductive freedom her entire career, and as a fierce, fierce advocate, for Black mothers and we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that the barriers, the path is clear for my daughter, and all our daughters.”
“When you layer on Trump’s abortion bans, the delivery world is even more dangerous [for Black women]. 70 percent of OB-GYNs that were surveyed have reported that the Dobbs decision has worsened racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health. And what’s more, Trump is driving away our health providers,” said U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14)
Underwood added: .“As Vice President, [Harris] made maternal health a top priority and announced the first ever Maternal Health Day of Action in the White House. She launched a blueprint to address our nation’s maternal health crisis, including investments in rural maternal health care… We need to keep up our momentum, and as president, we know that Kamala Harris will be the leading voice to making sure that a national abortion ban never becomes law.”
“[In August of 2022], I was pregnant and received a fatal fetal diagnosis… I needed to get an abortion, but I was unable to get this urgent health care via my family and community because of the extreme abortion ban in my state. I was forced to travel more than 1,000 miles away from my home, where I grew up and felt most comfortable, where my family was—just to access fundamental health care,” said Nancy Davis. “If Donald Trump returns to the White House, he will do everything in his power to ban abortion and restrict access to reproductive health care nationwide… ”
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