Vice President Kamala Harris brings Black maternal health to the top of the U.S. policy agenda

– Call to action. Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris convened cabinet secretaries and government agency leaders for a meeting devoted to Black maternal health. Scheduled to take place during Black Maternal Health Week, the meeting followed December’s Maternal Health Day of Action and marked the second year the White House has issued a presidential proclamation on the issue.

The gathering was the first time that leaders across agencies—including “agencies that may not have historically taken a leading role addressing the maternal health crisis,” the White House says—came together for such a summit to elevate Black maternal health to a national priority.

Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women, a disparity the CDC credits to unequal access to quality health care, structural racism, and implicit bias. Maternal health isn’t a new cause for Harris; she backed the Maternal CARE Act and the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, bills that aimed to close those gaps, during her time in the Senate.

Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images

As part of Wednesday’s summit, the White House announced updates to initiatives meant to close the fatal gap. The Biden administration is urging states to extend Medicaid coverage for the first year after birth (if states cooperate, the administration estimates the coverage would reach 720,000 more people). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are applying a new “birthing-friendly” label to hospitals that meet standards for maternal health. And this summer, the administration plans to involve the private sector, asking health care facilities and insurers to make commitments to improve health outcomes for pregnant and postpartum women.

Harris’s gathering brought together obvious stakeholders like Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, as well as the heads of the Department of Labor, Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Environmental Protection Agency. The lineup is an acknowledgment that pregnancy and postpartum health outcomes should be cause for concern across the government sector. “If we are to expect and actually influence positive outcomes on this issue, we must see her then as a whole human being,” Harris told the group, adding that cabinet leaders must think about maternal health as it intersects with issues like housing, transportation, and nutrition.

All told, the gathering shows the power of elevating diverse leaders to all levels of government. It’s no coincidence that the first presidential administration action addressing Black maternal health didn’t happen until a Black woman took office as vice president. From her perch as VP, Harris was able to bring her lived experience and deep understanding of the importance of closing racial disparities in women’s health care to the nation’s highest office.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

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- Home run. Alyssa Nakken, an assistant coach with the San Francisco Giants, made Major League Baseball history on Tuesday night. Nakken became the first woman to coach on-field when she replaced Antoan Richardson on first base during the fourth inning of the Giants' game against the San Diego Padres. Nakken joined the team as an intern in 2014 and was named assistant coach in 2020. Yahoo! Sports

- Farewell. Bitch Media, a Portland, Ore.-based media outlet providing feminist commentary on pop culture, will cease operations in June. The organization said recent challenges led it to conclude that it can not “sustainably continue creating the quality content that our readers and supporters expect.” During its 25-year reign, Bitch Media evolved from a zine distributed on the streets of San Francisco to a full-fledged nonprofit with a suite of offerings, including a magazine, podcasts, writing fellowships, and campus speaker series. Bitch Media

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PARTING WORDS

“She’s pretty much the most protected woman in America. She is a great example of how even if you have all the resources, it doesn’t matter. … It’s been really painful to watch but also really eye-opening for the public.”

-Lenora Claire, Beverly Hills-based stalking and harassment survivor and victim’s advocate, on how Kanye West’s online treatment of Kim Kardashian sheds light on digital harassment during divorce.