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U.S. Rep. Alma Adams of Charlotte, a leading congressional proponent of maternal health, is co-sponsor of a bill to erase morbidity gaps between black and white women.

Black mamas matter.

U.S. Rep. Alma Adams and Sen. Elizabeth Warren held a digital conversation Monday to recap Black Maternal Health Week, which was April 11-17.  They also addressed COVID-19, particularly as it pertains to African Americans.

Adams, a Charlotte Democrat, is co-chair and co-founder of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, along with Rep. Lauren Underwood. The caucus, which was founded last year, is designed to enhance awareness around disparities in maternal health for black women by creating legislation to protect black mothers, who are four times more likely to die from giving birth than white women.

“We’re in the middle of this crisis on the coronavirus, and to see how race intersects this, how generations of racial inequities in our healthcare system are showing up in the middle of this crisis, but also another crisis…the black maternal mortality rate,” said Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat.

The caucus introduced the Black Maternal Health Momnibus of 2020: nine bills in the House of Representatives with a companion bill in the Senate.

“[The bills] address the whole gamut of the problems, including racism,” Adams said.

While both Adams and Warren belong to the same party, they do not consider a mother’s wellbeing a partisan issue but a matter of life and death.

The virus may be new, and the caucus may be relatively young, but disparities in black maternal health are not new.

“So many people don’t even know that black women are three-four times more likely to die than white women giving birth,” Adams said. “My kids are up in age now and I’m a grandmother, and I’m concerned. This is a personal issue for me. My daughter had two near-misses.”

Adams’ daughter, Linda Lindsay, gave birth to her daughter Joslyn two months premature.

“She was having difficulty, feeling things and doctors weren’t listening to her,” Adams said. “She almost died.”

During a pandemic when healthcare systems are already taxed, Adams wants to know who advocates for expecting black mothers who do not feel that they are being heard by their doctors. She referenced the pregnancy struggles of Beyoncé and Serena Williams that even famous African American women are at risk.

“It doesn’t matter what your economic status is, even how great your insurance is, if you have it,” Adams said.

Adams referenced growing up without health insurance, and that she believes it should be a constitutional right.

“I had a sister who passed away two weeks before she turned 27 from sickle cell,” Adams said. 

Both Adams and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) have advocated for structural changes in the healthcare system, including Medicare expansion and paid maternity leave to give families greater access to insurance and treatment.

“Maybe this whole pandemic will get us to the point where we can have healthcare for everyone,” Adams said.

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