{"id":500,"date":"2026-06-10T16:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=500"},"modified":"2026-06-10T16:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:58:19","slug":"rfks-answer-to-the-maternal-health-crisis-hide-the-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=500","title":{"rendered":"RFK\u2019s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In April, during <\/span>a congressional hearing that coincided with Black Maternal Health Week, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the US\u2019 abysmal and largely preventable rates of maternal death compared to its\u00a0peers. <\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s \u201cWeaponization\u201d Claim Is Total BS<\/a><\/p>\n

Black women, Lee pointed out, fare three times worse than their white counterparts, even as the Trump administration continues to cut both health funding and research into racial health disparities.<\/p>\n

She posed a question: \u201cHow are we going to solve the Black maternal mortality crisis if we cannot say \u2018Black\u2019?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The GOP\u2019s attacks on Medicaid\u2014which finances health care for more than two in five births across the country\u2014and the White House\u2019s termination of thousands of federal health and science workers, including those tasked with compiling the country\u2019s most comprehensive data on maternal and infant health, give even more weight to independent research like Listening to Mothers, a nationwide survey published by the nonprofit National Partnership for Women and Families on Monday.<\/p>\n

The report\u2014the group\u2019s first nationwide survey since 2013\u2014surveys thousands of mothers who gave birth in a hospital in 2023 and 2024 about their experiences with the maternal care system, revealing pervasive barriers to quality care and widespread failures by health systems.<\/p>\n

Around 40 percent of respondents said they\u2019d been disrespected, dismissed, or ignored by providers during labor and delivery. More than a third reported unmet social needs during pregnancy\u2014mainly a lack of income, difficulty paying utility bills, or finding childcare\u2014particularly Black and indigenous respondents and those on Medicaid. After having their children, more than a fifth said at least one of those needs still hadn\u2019t been met.<\/p>\n

Before, during, and after their pregnancies, up to a fourth of respondents reported experiencing depressive symptoms. Symptoms of anxiety were even higher. Yet most people with either symptom received no treatment, even as late as 12 weeks after giving birth. And while research suggests that support from doulas and midwives improves outcomes, only a small fraction of respondents reported having access to or using either.<\/p>\n

The report ends by warning that the \u201cmodest gains of recent years,\u201d such as the expansion of Medicaid coverage to one year postpartum in all 50 states but Arkansas, \u201care now at risk of being rolled back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not where we should be,\u201d said Nan Strauss, National Partnership\u2019s senior director of maternal care. \u201cWe need to be adding to and improving people\u2019s lives, making it easier for them to focus on their families at this really critical moment, and instead their own efforts to be the best new mom that they can are being undercut every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Most New US Data Centers Are Slated for Drought-Plagued Areas<\/a><\/p>\n

In July, congressional Republicans enacted major cuts to SNAP and Medicaid; my colleague Daniel Friedman noted at the time that the bill would cost millions of people their health insurance and reduce access to birth control and other reproductive care\u2014imperiling maternity services at more than 140 rural hospitals, as my fellow colleague Nina Martin also reported.<\/p>\n

As the administration slashes the social safety net, it\u2019s also suppressing vast amounts ofdata on maternal health. For decades, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Reproductive Health Division partnered with a majority of state health departments to survey tens of thousands of women about their experiences before, during, and after pregnancy as part of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. But last April, the CDC team that oversaw PRAMS was put on leave, indefinitely cutting off federal support to the states collecting this data. (The termination of thousands of federal workers, including those at the CDC, is currently being challenged in court.)<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, said Rita Hamad, a social epidemiologist at Harvard University who has used PRAMS data to research safety net policies like paid parental leave, \u201csome states were not able to continue their data collection, in part because they were losing out on that technical assistance from the CDC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne really heartbreaking example is Mississippi, which stopped data collection for most of 2025,\u201d Hamad said, noting that the state declared infant mortality a public health emergency the same year. \u201cI was just thinking, gosh, how are they going to be able to address this crisis?\u201d <\/p>\n

Cassondra Marshall, an associate professor in UC Berkeley\u2019s Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Program, has used both PRAMS and Listening to Mothers data in her research. The data is \u201cneeded to develop interventions\u201d by policymakers, Marshall emphasized. Yet policies like the Momnibus bills, which were reintroduced in March and seek among other things to expand the perinatal workforce and improve data collection, face an uphill battle in the Republican-dominated Congress.<\/p>\n

As my colleague Madison Pauly put it last June, \u201cWith the White House and state governments denying the very idea of systemic racism and targeting anything that smacks of [DEI], structural change seems further away than ever.\u201d <\/p>\n

To make matters worse, the information the government is releasing isn\u2019t exactly reliable. Last month, on Mother\u2019s Day, HHS launched moms.gov, a website it described as offering \u201cguidance and information to support the health and wellbeing of mothers and their families.\u201d Yet the homepage contains no mention of parental leave or contraception, includes minimal mental health resources, and directs people to crisis pregnancy centers through another website operated by the Christian, anti-abortion Heartbeat International.<\/p>\n

For decades, mothers and maternal health experts have been talking about the need for evidence-based, community-focused interventions. Under RFK Jr., public health seems to be moving in the opposite direction.<\/p>

Read more The Supreme Court Just Hit Pause on an Abortion Pill Showdown<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For mothers, the \u201cmodest gains of recent years\u201d may not survive this administration, a new report warns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nRFK\u2019s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=500\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RFK\u2019s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data - Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For mothers, the \u201cmodest gains of recent years\u201d may not survive this administration, a new report warns.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=500\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-10T16:58:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/81cb229435514656654d9c860dd9540c.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1125\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7c79bcfd888d98f34c5413df7e81a2\"},\"headline\":\"RFK\u2019s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-10T16:58:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500\"},\"wordCount\":960,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/94b857185c18bc4132c074587e72dc92.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=500\",\"name\":\"RFK\u2019s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data - 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