TALLAHASSEE – A woman dies every nine days in Florida from a pregnancy-related complication, and Black Floridians are dying at higher rates than white or Hispanic women.
House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Fla., raised the issue in his speech during the organizational session in November.
“I’ve been looking at the data of the disparities that Black women face in maternal health care,” said Sprowls.
In response, a House committee heard from experts on the issue Wednesday.
Lawmakers were told on average that 40 Floridians die each year from pregnancy-related medical issues. Almost 70% are considered preventable.
“Even more tragic is the number of children who are left behind,” said Deborah Burch, with the Florida Department of Health.
The state has made some progress at closing racial disparities in death rates between Black and white mothers. Previously, a Black mother was three times as likely to die from pregnancy.
Over the past five years, the disparity has been cut by a third, which is good news to Committee Chair William Robinson.
“I wanted, at least, the members to understand the data to make sure moving forward we continue to see that decrease over time,” said Robinson.
But Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Fla., believes the state can do better.
“The rates for women of color are disproportionately high compared to white women, and so, that is not something to celebrate,” said Eskamani.
Democrats on the committee said they want to see the state implement racial bias training in hospitals and expand Medicaid to improve maternal mortality rates.
“There’s been efforts to expand that access, to better understand the racial implicit bias within the medical field and none of those bills have ever gotten a hearing,” said Eskamani.
But Robinson was non-committal on legislative action.
“Will there be some policy initiatives based upon that data? We’ll have to wait and see,” said Robinson.
Overall, the state has seen about a 30 decrease in its pregnancy-related mortality rate since 2009.
Of the pregnancy-related deaths, hemorrhage was the leading cause. Experts told lawmakers C-sections increase the risk of hemorrhaging.
Florida’s C-section rate is 30.4%, compared to the national target of 23.6%.