Fresno-area senator taking heat for holding up bill for pregnant Black women. What’s at stake?
A state bill to fund healthcare efforts for particularly vulnerable pregnant Black women and others has been held up by a Fresno-area legislator, who is being criticized for nearly putting the proposal in peril.
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, pulled Senate Bill 65 before it could be voted on last Tuesday during a meeting of the Senate Human Services Committee. The bill had already passed the Health Committee unanimously.
Also known as the California Momnibus Act, SB 65 is a commitment to strategies to reduce pregnancy and postpartum death rates and infant mortality, especially for low-income families in communities of color.
While pulling it last week, Hurtado said the bill needed more work, saying it did not prioritize counties with the greatest disparities.
“I appreciate the efforts made by the author to address inequities but as currently structured the bill does not prioritize counties that have the highest prevalence of maternal and infant mortality,” Hurtado said. “This bill needs a lot of work and careful consideration.”
The bill had no registered opposition before the committee vote. So when Hurtado pulled it, it came as a surprise, according to Nourbese Flint, policy director for Black Women for Wellness.
“We’re really concerned because we don’t know why it was held,” Flint said. “The way it was stopped was very unusual. It’s rare for a bill with so much support and little opposition to be held.”
Top Democrats in the Senate intervened on Monday and pulled SB 65 from Human Services into another committee in an effort to salvage the proposal. That means SB 65 could eventually make it to the Senate floor, where it’d be subject to more robust debate.
The bill needs to see a vote by Wednesday, the last day it can be heard in committee before it can move through the legislative process. Without that vote, or a special arrangement by the Senate Rules Committee, the bill is dead in the water.
Critics call for removal from committee
The Twitter account for local community advocacy group Fresno Barrios Unidos called for Hurtado to be removed from the chair position of the Human Services Committee, saying her decision was detrimental to Black women.
“Senator Hurtado has forgotten that Black women in her district have some of the worst pregnancy and birthing outcomes in the world,” the tweet said.
Black infants in California died at rates that were two times higher than Asian and white infants, according to the latest numbers from the California Health Care Foundation.
That’s 8.5 Black babies per 1,000 live births who died before reaching a year-old, compared to 3.5 white babies per 1,000.
The disparities were even worse for women giving birth. Black women are nearly four times more likely at 26.4 per 100,000 to die within 42 days postpartum than white women, who die at seven per 100,000, the foundation reports.
As is true in many instances related to health care, the central San Joaquin Valley has it worse than other parts of the state.
In 2017, the infant mortality rate in Fresno was 20.3 per 1,000 Black babies and 5.1 per 1,000 white babies, according to the Fresno County Department of Public Health.
Although Blacks accounted for only 5.1% of Fresno County’s total births in 2017, they represented 15.6% of total infant deaths. This is a wider disparity than in the state or the nation.
Holding back on programs that help women of color, especially during the pandemic is “mind-blowing,” according to Aisha Curry, an advocate for women in Fresno.
“People — even people who started the pandemic in the middle class — have been forced into low-income situations,” she said.
Hurtado, through her spokesperson, said under the proposed bill pregnant women could lose out on federal funds that “have strings attached,” such as workforce participation requirements.
Advocates for SB 65 say the bill makes considerations for antiquated work-to-welfare requirements.
Hurtado argued she has been supportive for women of color in her district, saying she “saved and supported” $85 million in funding last year for the Home Visiting Program, a nursing program. She also said she saved the Black Infant Health Program while serving on the Senate Budget Committee.
State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, authored SB 65 and said it deserved a chance to be debated on the Senate floor.
“To date, SB 65 has no opposition and passed the California Senate Health Committee unanimously with bipartisan support,” she said. “The coalition was, and is, willing to address any legitimate policy issues but was denied a hearing, thus deprived of the ability to do so. SB 65 deserves better.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Fresno-area senator taking heat for holding up bill for pregnant Black women. What’s at stake?."
