Adams, Underwood Announce 2024 Black Maternal Health Caucus Stakeholder Summit
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14) announced that the Black Maternal Health Caucus 2024 Stakeholder Summit will be held in Joliet, IL on Monday, August 26, 2024.
The event, hosted in collaboration with Representative Alma Adams (NC-12), will highlight progress in improving maternal health outcomes, spotlight opportunities to advance the Momnibus Act and key maternal health legislative priorities, and help build partnerships and strategies to end the maternal health crisis in the United States. This is the fourth annual Stakeholder Summit since the Caucus was founded by Underwood and Adams in 2019.
Summit programming will be available both in-person and virtually. Interested attendees are invited to fill out the attendee interest form, and those interested in participating in the programming of the summit are invited to fill out the participant interest form.
“We must pass the full Momnibus to save moms’ lives and finally end the maternal health crisis in our country,” said Underwood. “The Black Maternal Health Caucus 2024 Stakeholder Summit is an opportunity to come together with our partners to dig deeper into the wins of the last two years and why the Momnibus is the solution our moms need. I’m looking forward to celebrating the progress we’ve made and building on this momentum at this years’ Summit at home in Illinois.”
“I'm deeply grateful to our stakeholders who have been such critical partners in the Black Maternal Health Caucus's work to address the Black maternal health crisis. It will take all of us working together to get the Momnibus passed into law,” Adams said. “Already, the White House has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars in maternal and infant health programs nationwide and has prioritized the Black maternal health crisis for the first time in history. We need to make this a permanent priority of the White House and pass the Momnibus now. Our Mamas can't wait.”
The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country, but more than 80 percent of these deaths are preventable. Comprehensive federal action is the solution we need to save moms’ lives. To end this crisis, Underwood and Adams, who serve as Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, introduced the Momnibus Act.
The Momnibus makes critical investments to address social determinants of health, provide funding for community-based organizations, grow and diversify the perinatal health workforce, expand access to maternal mental health care, address the effects of climate change on maternal and infant health, and improve data collection processes. A one-page summary of the Momnibus, including a list of the 181 original House cosponsors, can be found here.
Members of the media interested in covering the 2024 Summit in Illinois should email BlackMaternalHealthCaucus@mail.house.gov.