The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Maternal mortality aid passes in Legislature
Bill aims to bolster care at critical time for poorest women.
Members of the Georgia House voted unanimously Wednesday to send maternal mortality legislation to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
Legislators voted 114-0 to pass House Bill 1114, which would eventually extend Medicaid for low-income mothers from two to six months after giving birth.
The legislation seeks to beef up care for the state’s poorest women during a critical time when conditions such as postpartum depression and high blood pressure can be fatal when left untreated.
But even if the bill is signed by the governor, the Legislature will need to find enough funding to pay for it in the budget. That’s far from guaranteed given the coronavirus’s economic toll on state revenue. A compromise blueprint is under negotiation for fiscal 2021, which begins Wednesday.
In a speech on the House floor, Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican from Marietta and the bill’s sponsor, thanked lawmakers for “beginning to take care of the needs of our most vulnerable mothers who are at risk of losing their lives postpartum.”
Georgia’s maternal mortality rate has long ranked among the bottom of U.S. states, and a bipartisan state study committee recently found that 60% of the Georgia’s maternal deaths from 2012 to 2014 were preventable.
HB 1114 is the Legislature’s most substantive action yet to cut down on such fatalities, which disproportionately affect women of color. Black women in Georgia are three to four times more likely than white women to die when they become mothers, according to the study committee.
The measure, which the Senate passed Tuesday, would also expand lactation care for mothers on Medicaid.