Investing in Black maternal health is the right move for Illinois

Decades since giving birth to my oldest daughters, I still remember being called “sweetheart” during a prenatal ultrasound — by a white, male doctor I had met minutes before. An already nerve-wracking procedure became a dismissive exchange.

I, a grown woman seeking intimate care, was no one’s “sweetheart,” nor did I deserve to be minimized in such a vulnerable setting. As I prepared to bring a child into the world, I started to question if I could trust my medical team to take me seriously.

Recently, my daughters (now grown women) expressed they find it difficult to trust doctors and navigate the health care system. As young Black women, they struggle to feel like their needs are prioritized in an industry that was not originally built to care for them. In their friendship circle, some women have reconsidered having children altogether because of the mortality rates for Black women.

Pregnancy and childbirth continue to claim more Black lives than any other ethnicity. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, from 2018 to 2020, Black women were three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related medical conditions than white women. Nationally, research has shown that Black families have the worst childbirth outcomes regardless of their income status or type of insurance coverage.

It’s one thing to understand the history of racial discrimination in the medical field; it is another thing entirely to see racism still plague public health in 2024. As a state leader and mother of Black women, this disturbs me to my very core.

How the Birth Equity Initiative would help

I believe that leaders have a responsibility to create pathways for every community to meet their basic needs. To foster a fair Illinois and reach true health equity, we must advance racial justice. That starts with efforts like Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recently proposed $23 million Birth Equity Initiative investment. If approved, the initiative would:

• Create a statewide blueprint to identify barriers and better coordinate work between state agencies across the full spectrum of maternal and child health supports.
• Help Medicaid providers understand how to bill for services so they can maintain a sustainable business.
• Expand the Illinois Reproductive Health Facilities Capital Grant program to support nonprofit and for-profit clinics providing or planning to provide innovative pregnancy-related services and abortion care to reduce birthing inequities — prioritizing underserved areas.
• Launch a pilot program to provide diapers to low-income families and expand existing investments in evidence-based home-visit programs.

The proposal also includes a new $12 million child tax credit for families who have newborns and children under 3 and are struggling to make ends meet.

The Birth Equity Initiative acknowledges it is a right, not a privilege, to carry a healthy pregnancy, deliver a healthy baby and make it home to raise that baby in a healthy environment. It also acknowledges the fact Black women have never been afforded that peace of mind. This initiative is as much about building trust as it is about creating access to health care.

To honor the lives already lost and advocate for those still with us, we as a society need to ask ourselves: What story are we telling young Black girls? That they cannot be trusted to advocate for their own bodies? That they deserve lesser care and higher risk simply because of the color of their skin? I refuse to perpetuate this any longer.

The Birth Equity Initiative is our administration’s way of making sure fewer women lose their heartbeat as a new one finds its rhythm. Black women deserve to welcome their babies into the world safely and know their doctors will make sure they get home, too. No family should be forced to grieve a preventable death as they celebrate the birth of a new life.

Juliana Stratton is lieutenant governor of Illinois.

The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.

The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Sun-Times or any of its affiliates.