A Fresno-area senator blocked a Black health bill. Here’s how lawmakers responded
A California Senate committee pushed through health legislation for Black women and other underprivileged groups that had been held up by a Fresno-area senator.
Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, pulled Senate Bill 65 before it could be debated or voted upon on April 20 to the consternation of advocates for low-income mothers and their babies, primarily those of color.
The Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday voted to send SB 65, also called the California Momnibus Act, straight through to the Appropriations Committee, bypassing the hurdle put up by Hurtado.
SB 65 was authored by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. Her staffers said the bill does not have a hearing yet scheduled but they expect to get one soon.
The bill had no registered opposition, so advocates said they were left scratching their heads over Hurtado’s move, according to Nourbese Flint, policy director for Black Women for Wellness.
“The way it was stopped was very unusual,” she said last week. “It’s rare for a bill with so much support and little opposition to be held.”
Black infant mortality and deaths among postpartum Black mothers are much higher than whites, and particularly bad in Fresno County.
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.
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. The amount of money for the efforts needs to be worked out in the Appropriations Committee.
Hurtado has said the bill does not do enough to prioritize communities where infant and postpartum mother mortality is the worst. She said she asked for changes but the author was not amenable.
Hurtado got support for her own legislation, Senate Bill 492 called the Maternal Outcome Measures, or M.O.M., Act. She noted she heads the Human Services Committee, a position she says is responsible for protecting the most vulnerable through programs and support services.
Another bill authored by Skinner, Senate Bill 354, got Hurtado to abstain, allowing a vote. SB 354 proposes changes to the process of placing foster children with a relative who may have a criminal history, which advocates say disproportionately affects people of color.
“I take this role seriously and make every effort to work to address concerns with authors and improve legislation, not only to continue to protect, but to expand,” Hurtado said on Thursday. “I had concerns about those protections in both SB 65 and SB 354. The only exception is the author took amendments in one and not the other.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 2:29 PM with the headline "A Fresno-area senator blocked a Black health bill. Here’s how lawmakers responded."
