The following letter was submitted by Nora Mann of Wollaston Avenue and is signed by 10 others:
Right here in Massachusetts, a black woman is more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as a white woman. As we join the black community’s demand for racial justice, we also join the demand for maternal justice.
“An Act to Reduce Racial Disparities in Maternal Health” (H4448/S2697) has cleared two committees and is now in the House Ways and Means Committee. If enacted, it will create a commission of health experts and directly affected individuals to examine the causes of racial disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity in Massachusetts, and issue recommendations to end these health inequities.
As community activists and volunteers in Arlington working for better access to comprehensive reproductive health care, we believe that Black Lives Matter in labor and delivery wards just as they do everywhere else. We ask all of our neighbors and friends to tell your legislators we need this bill passed NOW!
Nora Mann
Alan Linov
Nancy H. Gray
June Rowe
Barbara Reich
Marlene Silva
Lisa Pedulla
Linda Hanson
Rachel Roth
Cheryl Hamlin
Susan Webber
This letter was published Monday, June 22, 2020.
