Target: Robert Aderholt, Chair of U.S. House Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services
Goal: Help increase maternity care standards for millions of expectant mothers.
Maternity care is vital for growing families, yet in Georgia alone a full one-third of counties do not have a health center or hospital that offers these crucial services. And in states including Alabama, South Carolina, and Ohio, more services are being lost by the day as clinics close and physicians leave. As a likely consequence, infant mortality rates nationwide rose for the first time in decades.
Across the country, so-called maternity care deserts are spreading with disturbing rapidity. Since the revocation of reproductive rights and the onslaught of new state laws, the situation has worsened significantly. If the trend continues, the lives of more infants and mothers will be lost.
Sign the petition below to encourage federal legislation expanding maternity care.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Representative Aderholt,
A recent report by the March of Dimes shed a damning light on the rise of maternity care deserts in the United States. The map in the report is a sea of red representing areas where women lack basic access to care. A decline in OB clinics and services and in OB providers in these regions—together with a rising number of uninsured expectant mothers—has created a landscape where nearly seven million women have limited or no maternity care options within their reach.
Not coincidentally, infant mortality rates are on a significant upswing now (with your state holding the highest rate). Please explore all legislative options for reversing this dangerous epidemic that is leaving far too many Americans behind without a lifeline.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Mart Production
713 Signatures