Why Congress hasn't passed bills to save Black infants, moms
This article was originally published in THE CAP TIMES as a project for the Center's 2026 National Fellowship.
Maternal health advocates are watching Washington, D.C. for action on a problem they have struggled to address in Wisconsin and across the country: stark racial disparities in health outcomes for mothers and babies.
The Momnibus Act, a package of 14 bills to address America’s status as having the worst rates of maternal mortality among all high-income countries, is again before Congress where Wisconsin Reps. Gwen Moore and Marc Pocan and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin are among its supporters.
First introduced in 2020, the package would invest in areas including maternal healthcare, community-based resources, the birth workforce and data collection and review. Baldwin and Moore wrote a key piece of the package, the Perinatal Workforce Act, earlier this year and joined colleagues in reintroducing the full package of bills in August.
But the overall package faces an uphill battle in a Congress controlled by Republicans, similar to the partisan struggle Democrats in Wisconsin face in passing bills to address maternal and infant health disparities in the state Legislature also controlled by Republicans.
Stripping out ‘Black’ in anti-DEI age
The package of federal bills was referred to as the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act when it was first introduced in 2020, and in sessions since. The most recent version of the bill no longer names Black maternal health specifically in its title and includes the word “Black” only once in the 172-page package of legislation.
This is despite the fact that Black women in the United States face a rate of death from pregnancy-related complications three times higher than white women.
The removal of references to the racial nature of the crisis comes as President Donald Trump’s administration targets any initiatives it perceives as related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. Those initiatives include targeting the Offices of Minority Health in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for elimination last year.
This month, the Trump administration also halted $38 million in previously awarded grants for minority health initiatives.
The president’s proposed budget request for 2027 also would cut the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Safe Motherhood/Infant Health Portfolio, a group of programs aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality and improving outcomes through data collection and clinical care.
“In this day and age, when DEI is under attack and women's reproductive health in general is under attack, it is frightening to think that the most vulnerable women in the country, and maybe even among (wealthy) countries in the world, are at risk of having maternal and infant deaths that rival so-called Third World countries,” Moore said. “That is in the richest country on Earth. This is a disgrace.”
Lawmakers in the Wisconsin Legislature face similar challenges, according to members of the Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus, who fear that passage of a proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit any state law that could be perceived as DEI and make it harder to save lives. The proposed amendment, described on the ballot as a ban on any governmental “discrimination” or “preferential treatment” in Wisconsin, appears on ballots for state voters in the Nov. 3 election.
Struggling for bipartisan support
The U.S. Senate package of Momnibus bills has 28 cosponsors — all Democrats with the exception of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats.
In the U.S. House, the package has 213 cosponsors, all of whom are Democrats.
In both bodies, legislation requires bipartisan support to pass because the partisan breakdown of both the Senate and the House is so narrow. The need for some Republican support presents a significant barrier, said Moore, who criticized her GOP colleagues for contradicting their “pro-life” platform.
“These are the same people that wax on about loving babies, loving children,” Moore said. “We disagree on a woman's right to choose, but we should not be disagreeing on reducing maternal mortality and infant mortality.”
Baldwin said the maternal health crisis affects people whether or not they are Democrats.
“Wisconsin certainly is not alone in experiencing these sharp disparities,” she said. “It happens in red states and blue states, and I can't understand anybody who wouldn't want to take action to address these disparities to make sure that we are a country that is investing in healthy babies and healthy moms, and providing tools and support necessary for that to happen.”
The United States spends more on healthcare than any other high-income country but has the worst maternal mortality rate among them, according to a 2024 study from The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation that studies healthcare system performance.
Moore was first elected in 2004, becoming the first Black person from Wisconsin to serve in Congress. For her, the maternal and infant health crisis is personal. Her granddaughter was born at 1 pound, 2 ounces. Her daughter had difficulties throughout all of her pregnancies, Moore said.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, shown at a Milwaukee campaign event in 2022, is among authors of a set of congressional bills intended to address maternal and infant health disparities in America.
RUTHIE HAUGE
The congresswoman also recalls that her own first pregnancy was traumatic. The hospital wouldn’t allow family to be present in her delivery room, Moore said, but it felt like every resident in the hospital came through her room to examine her. The congresswoman said she felt like a train wreck for people to gawk at.
“This work is really inspired by my own lived experiences,” she said.
Momnibus identifies 14 ways to save lives
This session’s Momnibus Act is made up of 14 bills that would change laws and add funding to address a range of issues including social determinants of health like housing or food insecurity, risks including public health emergencies and how incarcerated moms are treated while in prison.
The package awards federal grant funding for many of these areas. Moore and Baldwin’s bill focuses on training and diversifying birth workers who provide support to pregnant, birthing and postpartum moms.
The bill would set federal standards calling for states to recruit maternal health workers “from racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds,” and to broad maternal healthcare teams to more readily include midwives, physician assistants, lactation specialists, advanced practice nurses and perinatal health workers “with experience practicing in racially and ethnically diverse communities; and who have undergone training on implicit bias and racism.”
“There's a particular focus on cultural competence with regard to who we're recruiting into these professions,” Baldwin said. “So that you have, say, a doula who looks like you.”
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin rests a hand on Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley’s shoulder as she leaves a Democratic unity breakfast Aug. 12, 2026, at Prairie Cafe & Bakery in Middleton.
Ilana Bar-av
The initiative isn’t necessarily focused on doctors.
“It's more particularly focused on doulas and midwives and others who aren't necessarily going to be delivering babies, but really are coaches, advocates, mentors for the pregnant individual,” Baldwin said.
Other bills in the package include extending eligibility for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, during the postpartum and breastfeeding periods for new moms; fund maternal care initiatives for veterans; increase funding for maternal mortality review boards and increase focus on maternal mental health and substance use treatment.
One piece of legislation would award federal grants to organizations aimed at improving access to care for underserved populations who are at higher risk for pregnancy and postpartum complications, including Black women who have a rate of maternal mortality three times that of white women nationally.
The overall maternal mortality rate in the U.S. in 2024 stood at 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the CDC. For white women that rate was lower at 14.2 deaths per 100,000 births. For Black women, the rate was 44.8.
The second session of the 119th Congress is set to end in December, leaving about two and a half months for this package to progress.