***IMMEDIATE ACTION***THE MAGA MURDER BUDGET BILL WILL MAKE PREGNANCY EVEN MORE DANGEROUS [5-29-25]
Despite a decline in maternal deaths since COVID, our mortality rate’s still the highest of any developed nation, although 80% of these deaths are likely preventable. At 22.3 deaths/100,000 live births, we’re almost double Chile’s rate, the next country in line, and Norway had no maternal deaths in 2022. Disadvantaged groups’ rates are much higher—3.8 and 2.8 times higher respectively for Native American and Black women—due to inequities in access to care and clinician bias.
Medicaid expansion, which began in 2014 and now covers 40 states and Washington, D.C. largely drove the decline, because Medicaid finances 41.5% of all births annually and partially or mostly covers 80+% of those receiving non-hospital prenatal and postpartum services.
Pregnancy is not a luxury, and safe childbirths not a partisan issue, but, even before the House MAGA Murder Budget Bill passed, too many women died because our healthcare system failed them. In just the last 2 years, 1 in every 25 obstetric units closed, and, because 1000+ counties are now classified as maternity-care deserts, 2.3 million women live without access to birthing facilities or obstetricians.
The bill’s massive cuts to Medicaid, elimination of all Planned Parenthood funding, and decreased access to ACA coverage will only make this crisis worse—deepening disparities, exacerbating labor and delivery unit closures, putting access to pregnancy, postpartum, preventive and reproductive healthcare at serious risks, and harming the most vulnerable.
If you care about healthy moms and babies, about rural communities surviving and the basic dignity of safely giving birth in America, you cannot support this bill. You and your colleagues must reject these cruel and unconscionable cuts and push instead for legislation preventing maternal deaths and improving health outcomes for mothers—positions endorsed overwhelmingly by your constituents.
ACTION One: Call the Senate.
SEN. MERKLEY: Portland office: 503-326-3386 | D.C. office: 202-224-3753
SEN. WYDEN: Portland office: 503-326-7525 | D.C. office: 202-224-5244
