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Legislation to Support Stillbirth Prevention Heads to House After Unanimous Senate Approval

ProPublica
2 years ago

by Duaa Eldeib

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Congress is one step closer to prioritizing stillbirth prevention at the federal level.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act, which ensures that federal maternal and child health dollars can be used for stillbirth prevention efforts. Every year in the U.S., more than 20,000 pregnancies end in the death of an expected child at 20 weeks of pregnancy or more. Research shows as many as 1 in 4 stillbirths may be preventable.

The passage in the Senate marks a milestone for the bill, which was first introduced last year but never came up for a vote in either the House or Senate. This time, the bill was introduced in July and passed by the Senate on Sept. 30.

ProPublica’s ongoing reporting on stillbirths over the last two years has revealed systemic failures that have contributed to the country’s stillbirth crisis, from federal agencies not prioritizing research, awareness and data collection to the racial disparities that have led to higher stillbirth risks in Black communities. In March, the National Institutes of Health released a report calling the country’s stillbirth rate “unacceptably high” and issued a list of recommendations to reduce it, many of which were aimed at the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., reintroduced the bill with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. The next day, U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and Alma Adams, D-N.C., introduced the measure in the House.

“ProPublica’s investigative reporting has helped call public attention to this major public health concern, and with the tremendous advances we’ve made in modern medicine, we have the capability to do much more,” Merkley said in a statement.

He urged the House to quickly pass the bill, citing the devastating impact stillbirth has on parents and families. He emphasized that some stillbirths can be prevented.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, an original co-sponsor, said he was grateful the Senate came together to unanimously pass the legislation and echoed the hope that it continues to move swiftly through Congress.

“Effective problem solving starts with having a thorough understanding of root causes, contributors and vulnerabilities,” he said in a statement. “Our bill would get rid of limits on federal resources so that the medical community can further pursue evidence-based efforts to support expectant moms and save babies’ lives.”

The bill united lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and has the power to “help save lives and ensure more mothers have the chance to raise their babies,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who added she is eager for Congress to send it to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

“In one of the richest countries in the world, our rising maternal mortality rate and high number of stillbirths is absolutely unconscionable,” said Duckworth, who has worked on other maternal and child health legislation.

The nonprofit Healthy Birth Day, which is based in Iowa, championed the bill and celebrated its passage in the Senate. CEO Emily Price traveled to Washington, D.C., last month with families that have suffered stillbirths to raise awareness about the crisis.

“This is a huge win for families who have endured the tragedy of stillbirth and a huge win to keep future families from facing life without their baby,” Price said. ProPublica’s reporting, she said “helped show Congress, staffers and Americans the reality of living through stillbirth and the major impacts it can have on families and communities.”

Less than a third of state health departments are using money allocated under Title V Maternal and Child Health block grants for stillbirth reduction, Price said. The bill, which doesn’t provide additional funding, amends the Social Security Act to explicitly permit public health officials to use those federal dollars for stillbirth prevention initiatives.

Healthy Birth Day, which created a Count the Kicks app to encourage expectant parents to be aware of and track movements in the womb, has worked with health departments to focus on the importance of monitoring fetal movement.

Price said it is also critical that lawmakers pass another key stillbirth prevention bill currently in Congress, the Stillbirth Health Improvement and Education (SHINE) for Autumn Act. That sweeping legislation addresses significant gaps in stillbirth research, data, awareness and fetal autopsy training.

Adams, co-chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, said she was proud to see the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act pass in the Senate and hopes her colleagues in the House will soon follow suit. Congress, she said, is finally treating stillbirth “with the urgency it deserves.”

“For too long, stillbirth has been a silent crisis,” Adams said, “but the mothers and families experiencing this crisis deserve a voice.”

by Duaa Eldeib

We Don’t Talk About Leonard

ProPublica
2 years ago

by Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll and Ilya Marritz

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This podcast was produced with On the Media.

This is “We Don’t Talk About Leonard,” a podcast series with WNYC’s “On The Media” that explores the web of money, influence and power behind the conservative takeover of America’s courts — and the man at the center of it all: Leonard Leo.

Historians and legal experts say there is no comparable figure in American jurisprudence. To the extent Leo is known, it’s for his role helping to install the conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court. But his reach extends far beyond that. Decades ago, he realized it was not enough to have justices on his side. Those jurists needed to decide the right cases, brought by the right lawyers and heard by the right lower court judges. He built a machine to do just that.

Find “We Don't Talk About Leonard” wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 1

In the first episode, we travel from Leo’s modest roots in middle-class New Jersey to a mansion in Maine where last year he hosted a lavish party with federal judges that fell on the night before the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Episode 2

In the second episode, we find a Montana solicitor general with an odd bobblehead doll; see Leo mobilizing his machine and connecting donors to Supreme Court justices; and see Leo make a fateful decision.

Episode 3

In the third episode, Leo is in Maine, a man in his castle, at the height of his powers. He has helped remake the American judicial system, and now he has a plan to do the same for society and politics — to make a Federalist Society for everything. But his vision for American society … collides with American society.

Do you know something newsworthy about Leonard Leo? Email Andrea Bernstein or Andy Kroll, or contact Kroll on Signal at 202-215-6203.

This series is reported by Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll and Ilya Marritz and edited by “On The Media” executive producer Katya Rogers and ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger. Molly Rosen is the lead producer, with help from Shaan Merchant. Jennifer Munson is our technical director. Jared Paul wrote and recorded all the original music. Our fact checkers are Andrea Marks and Hannah Murphy Winter.

by Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll and Ilya Marritz

The Man behind the Headlines

MoHistory
2 years ago
If people in St. Louis today remember newspaper editor John A. Cockerill, it’s probably because of his involvement in the infamous shooting at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in October 1882. Cockerill, however, was instrumental in developing the newspaper that is still published today. Cockerill’s career as a journalist started when he was young. In 1859, …

Continue reading "The Man behind the Headlines"

Laura Shimel