By Latoya Newsom-Harris, MPH, MSN, RN
Latoya Newsom-Harris, MPH, MSN, RN
Bringing a child into the world should be a joyful experience for everyone. Every year, millions of families welcome new babies and begin new and wonderful journeys in their lives.
Unfortunately, many Black women live in fear that these happy moments won’t be available to them. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women in America.
As a Reproductive Health Nurse and Maternal and Child Health Specialist, I have spent 15 years advocating for Black women’s health.
In my role, I work with pregnant women and women who may be experiencing infertility. It is a joy to help them have the family that they always wanted or to support them through difficult moments in their pregnancy and after delivery. Some of my patients face the tough reality of dealing with conditions like diabetes and hypertension that persist after pregnancy.
Working in the reproductive health field, I have seen many patients who want to start or expand their family but carrying the pregnancy to term could be life-threatening. Many think that these cases are a gray area, but this is healthcare.
That’s why this election is a critical moment for Black moms. We’re making progress in the fight to protect and support Black moms, but we need leaders who will keep us moving forward.
During the first two years of Trump’s presidency, 300,000 Black Americans lost health insurance, and he was one vote away from repealing the Affordable Care Act. If he gets re-elected, he wants to roll back the ACA and take away healthcare– including contraception, pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care– from over 3 million Black Americans.
Vice President Harris has made Black maternal health a priority, first as a Senator and now as Vice President. The Biden-Harris Administration has expanded access to health care, protected mothers from unexpected medical bills, expanded access to doulas and midwives, and created the Maternal Mental Health Hotline. Vice President Harris also launched the first-ever White House Maternal Health Day of Action.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance want to take us backward. During his first term, Trump vowed to appoint Supreme Court justices who would take away women’s reproductive freedoms– and then succeeded when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the justices he appointed. And his dangerous second-term agenda– Project 2025– shows that if he is elected again, his administration could even ban abortion nationally, making the delivery room even more dangerous for Black women.
Too many times I have listened to patients talk about their fears surrounding maternal mortality in America. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is exacerbating those fears. 68% of OBGYNs have said that Roe being overturned made it harder to deliver pregnancy-related emergency care. Overturning Roe is stopping doctors from saving mothers in medical emergencies– and some medical providers are even leaving states with ultra-restrictive abortion laws because they fear any medical intervention, such as miscarriage management, could land them in jail.
For patients looking to start or expand their family, Trump and J.D. Vance want to eliminate access to vital healthcare like IVF. J.D. Vance has even voted to block legislation to protect access to IVF.
Donald Trump and JD Vance’s extremism would hurt Black mothers– costing people their health and even potentially their lives. We can’t afford that. Vice President Harris has worked to protect and strengthen our healthcare system and lower costs for all. It is more important now than ever for us to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.