By: Jasmine West
Black women are still dying at disproportionate rates during childbirth in Michigan, and advocates spent this week reminding lawmakers that the crisis is not new or acceptable.
The push comes during Black Maternal Health Week, observed across Michigan and around the country as organizers, lawmakers, and families call attention to the racial inequities that continue to shape pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. State data shows Black women in Michigan die during childbirth at more than 2.5 times the rate of white women.
State Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor, said any serious effort to address that gap has to go beyond surface-level fixes and confront the conditions driving poor outcomes in the first place.
“Black maternal health must be whole, person-centered, and holistic. It must include environmental and economic issues, and it requires removing the barriers to access and care and improving and cultivating meaningful policy actions that are actually useful,” Geiss said during a floor speech.
Geiss is among the lawmakers backing Michigan’s Momnibus package, a set of bills aimed at tackling inequities in maternal health care. The legislation would strengthen state data collection around racism in reproductive medicine, require many health insurance plans to cover midwife services, and prohibit discrimination based on pregnancy or lactating status.
The package has already cleared the Michigan Senate twice, once during the previous legislative session and again during the current one.
Yet it still has not made it to the House floor for a vote.
That stalled movement has frustrated advocates, especially because the bills died at the end of 2024 even while Democrats held the majority. Now, nearly a year has passed with the package still waiting for a committee hearing in the House.
CDC data shows Black women nationally died from maternal causes at a rate of 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024, more than three times the rate for white women. Newer state data makes clear the broader crisis has not disappeared: severe maternal complications are still being tracked through 2024, while Black infant mortality stood at 11.9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, nearly triple the white rate.
Advocates with the Mothering Justice Action Fund were in Lansing this week pressing lawmakers to move the legislation forward. Aisha Wells, the group’s deputy campaign director, said she believes the bills can still pass this year, but belief alone is not enough without action.
“I think that we can get a lot of moms, families, people who understand that mamas should not die if they’re having a baby,” Wells said. “I think that’s simple enough for lawmakers to understand that we can pass that policy.”
Every delay carries consequences. Every year lawmakers fail to act, Black mothers remain vulnerable to preventable deaths tied to a system that has long delivered unequal care.
House Health Policy Committee leadership, in a written statement, said it supports efforts to improve maternal and infant health broadly. It did not say whether the Momnibus package will receive a hearing or move any further this session.
