Newswires:UN agencies warn of starvation risk in Sudan, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Mali, call for urgent aid.

By: Associated Press

Two U.N. agencies warned Monday of rising food emergencies including starvation in Sudan due to the outbreak of war and in Haiti, Burkina Faso and Mali due to restricted movements of people and goods.
The four countries join Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen at the highest alert levels, with communities that are already facing or projected to face starvation or otherwise risk a slide “towards catastrophic conditions.”
The report by the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization calls for urgent attention to save both lives and jobs. Beyond the nine countries rating the highest level of concern, the agencies said 22 countries are identified as “hotspots” risking acute food insecurity.
“Business-as-usual pathways are no longer an option in today’s risk landscape if we want to achieve global food security for all, ensuring that no one is left behind.” said Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General.
He called for immediate action in the agricultural sector “to pull people back from the brink of hunger, help them rebuild their lives and provide long-term solution to address the root causes of food insecurities.”
The report cited a possible spillover of the conflict in Sudan, deepening economic crises in poor nations and rising fears that the El Nino climatic phenomenon forecast for mid-2023 could provoke climate extremes in vulnerable countries.
The report warns that 1 million people are expected to flee Sudan, while an additional 2.5 million inside Sudan face acute hunger in the coming months as supply routes through Port Sudan are disrupted by safety issues.
WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain warned of “catastrophic” consequences unless there is clear action to “help people adapt to a changing climate and ultimately prevent famine.”
“Not only are more people in more places around the world going hungry, but the severity of the hunger they face is worse than ever,” McCain said.

 

Newswires: Tribes call on Haaland to push increased protections for the Grand Canyon.

By: Lyric Aquino, Grist

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland met with tribal leaders representing a dozen Indigenous nations last weekend in a move that could expand protections for land around The Grand Canyon, permanently safeguarding the region from future uranium mining.
The proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument would convert 1.1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park into a National Monument, providing significant protections to tribal water sources, delicate ecosystems, and cultural sites, while curtailing the impacts of uranium mining — a proposal tribes in the area have been fighting for since 1985. Baaj Nwaavjo means “where tribes roam” in the Havasupai language, I’tah Kukveni translates to “our footprints” in Hopi. 
The region has high concentrations of uranium and mining has been a feature of the landscape since the 1950s. When mining first began in the area, uranium was used primarily for nuclear weapons. Today, uranium from the Grand Canyon is used for nuclear energy plants and power reactors in submarines and naval ships. 
In 2012, then-Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, placed a 20-year ban on uranium mining on more than a million acres of federal lands near the Grand Canyon in order to protect surface water from radioactive dust and mining waste. Without increased federal protections, tribal leaders say mining claims can be made at the end of the 20-year-ban, re-opening the Grand Canyon to uranium exploration. 
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, mining in the area disturbs underground vertical rock formations called “breccia pipes” — formations that often hold hydrothermal fluid or extremely hot water heated by the earth’s mantle and filled with various gasses, minerals and salts, including uranium. When disturbed, those breccia pipes can release their contents into aquifers and eventually, larger water systems.
In 2016, the Pinyon Plain Mine pierced an aquifer flooding mineshafts, and draining groundwater supplies. Between 2016 and 2021, the Grand Canyon Trust estimated that more than 48 million gallons of water had flooded Pinyon’s mineshafts, and the National Parks Conservation Association has consistently reported uranium levels in that water exceeding federal toxicity limits by more than 300%.
When ingested, uranium can cause bone and liver cancer, damage kidneys, and affect body processes like autoimmune and reproductive functions.
In 2016, tribal leaders brought the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni proposal to the Obama administration, but were rejected. Now, the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition, made up of 12 tribes with ties to the area, hope Secretary Haaland will encourage the Biden administration to protect the region.
“We can’t wait until the accident happens,” said Carletta Tilousi, a Havasupai elder and member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. “We are trying to prevent the catastrophe before it happens.” 
The Havasupai reservation is an eight mile hike below the rim of the Grand Canyon and one of the most isolated communities in the United States.
But Tillousi says that while stopping uranium mining will be a major goal of the proposal, ongoing contamination issues must be addressed. The Pinyon Plain Mine continues to contaminate the Havasupai’s sole water supply, the Havasu Creek. Pinyon has been operating since 1986, and while the 2012 uranium mining ban stopped the construction of new mines, Pinyon is exempt due to its pre-approval. As of 2020, 30 million gallons of groundwater tainted with high levels of uranium and arsenic have been pumped out of the mines flooded shaft and dumped in an uncovered pond.
“We’re a small tribe, our tribe is made up of 765 people,” said Tillousi. “We need to protect our village and homes.”

Newswires: Dr. Cornell West declares candidacy for President on People’s Party ticket.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Renowned scholar and activist Dr. Cornel West declared his candidacy for the upcoming presidential race under the banner of the People’s Party, as announced on Monday.
In a compelling video shared on Twitter, West expressed his intention to run for the pursuit of truth and justice, emphasizing that the presidency serves as a means to achieve these noble ideals.
With a strong academic background, including positions at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and Princeton University, West is recognized for his intellectual activism.
In his Twitter video, West articulated his decision to run as a third-party candidate, citing the reluctance of the established political parties to address critical issues concerning Wall Street, Ukraine, the Pentagon, and Big Tech.
He referred to former President Donald Trump, a leading contender for the Republican nomination, as a “neo-fascist” and labeled President Biden as a “milquetoast neoliberal.”
West’s educational journey has taken him through esteemed universities such as Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, and he presently holds a professorship in philosophy at Union Theological Seminary.
Throughout his career, he has been known for his progressive activism and his outspoken critique of former President Barack Obama.
Fair wages, affordable housing, abortion rights, universal healthcare, the urgent need to address climate change, and preserving American democracy were some of the significant issues West highlighted in his campaign video.
The platform through which West intends to pursue his presidential aspirations is the People’s Party, which Nick Brana founded after previously working on Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
While the party attempted to recruit Sanders after his 2016 campaign, the senator declined involvement and subsequently sought the Democratic nomination once again in 2020.
“Will we succeed? Only time will tell. But some of us are ready to fight until the end,” declared West in his announcement video, leaning towards the camera, his words resonating with determination.
“We will fight passionately, with style, and with a smile.

Newswires: Two more died last week 54 Alabama inmates have died in state prisons this year.

By: Patrick Darrington, Alabama Political Reporter
May 31, two incarcerated individuals in separate prison facilities in Alabama were found unresponsive in their cells and later determined to be deceased following unsuccessful life-saving measures.
The two individuals were Tarrance Demetri Guyton, 56, and Steven Ray Harris, 65. ADOC confirmed that Guyton was reported dead at the St. Clair Correctional Facility and Harris’ death was reported at the Staton Correctional Facility.
With their passing, at least 54 individuals have died in Alabama state prisons this year. The total is likely an undercount.
Both Guyton and Harris are suspected of dying from drug overdoses, sources inside said, but ADOC did not confirm that. Their causes of death will be confirmed following an autopsy and investigation by ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division.

With summer arriving, the conditions inside ADOC are anticipated to worsen. With a lack of air conditioning to combat the heat, tensions are expected to flare, leading to more violence.

$2.2 billion in assistance for farmers who experienced discrimination in USDA Farm Loan Programs will soon be available

Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, in August 2022, provides in Section 22007, an authorization of $2.2 Billion to compensate farmers who “experienced discrimination in USDA Farm Loan Programs, prior to January 1, 2021”.

USDA is working now to develop the regulations and the claims process for farmers who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs to receive these funds. USDA has designated a national administrator for the process -the Midtown Group; and two subsidiary groups, Windsor Group for the counties east of the Mississippi river and Analytic Acquisitions for the western half of the nation.

The Section 22007 process is for farmers who experienced discrimination in the USDA farm loan programs, this includes racial and ethnic discrimination against Black farmers, Latino, indigenous, Asian-Pacific islanders, gender discrimination against women and LBGQT persons, religious discrimination and other forms of discrimination, which farmers may wish to assert in their claims.

Dania Davy, an attorney who heads the Federation of Southern Cooperative’s Land Retention Program said, “There is a lot of misinformation already about the Section 22007 program. This is not a new
class action lawsuit. This is not the re-opening of any prior lawsuit or settlement process. This is a new process for people who were discriminated against in USDA Farm Loan Programs. We are awaiting the regulations and the claim form, which USDA plans to release next month in June. They hope to complete this process in the next six months by the end of 2023.”

Davy further commented that, “USDA is saying you will not need a lawyer to fill out the claim form. You will not have to pay a fee for getting assistance in filling out these claim forms. The Federation and other community-based organizations with agricultural experience and knowledge of USDA programs, will be contracted to provide technical assistance in the filing of claim forms for Section 22007 funds. If you choose to employ your own attorney to file your claim, you will need to pay for these services out of your award.”

The maximum claim can be up to $500,000 but the average claim will be much less and closer to the $50,000 basic claim assistance offered in the
prior discrimination settlements.

Farmers who experienced recent discrimination in USDA programs, may contact the Office of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (OASCR), Information Research Service, at (866) 632-9992 (toll free) or send an email to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at CR-INFO@usda.gov.

USDA has set up a website for information on the Section 22007 process, which is: http://www.farmers.gov/22007, that will have up to date information on the process going forward, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

The Federation, Rural Coalition, Intertribal Agriculture Council and many other community-based organizations who work with BIPOC farmers are awaiting the release of the regulations and claim form for the 22007 discrimination process. Once this critical information is released then these groups plan to implement strategies to assist farmers with their claims.

The Federation can be reach through their website at; http://www.federation.coop or by phone at 404/765-0991 at the Atlanta administrative office or 205/652-9676 at the Rural Training and Research Center in Epes, Alabama.

Newswire : NAACP issues travel advisory warning Black people against traveling to Florida

 Black family enjoying one of Florida’s beaches

By: Sharelle Burt, Black Enterprise

The NAACP is warning Black people to stay away from the Sunshine State.
CNN reports the historic advocacy group released a statement issuing a travel advisory in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ deliberate attempt to erase African American history and DEI initiatives in schools.

“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the NAACP said. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
The NAACP, long an advocate for Black Americans, joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state’s largest job sectors.
The advisory has been in the works for months as the Hillsborough County Chapter of the organization met with other NAACP members back in March and agreed to work with the national office on this advisory.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson says DeSantis’ antics conflict with the ideals that the group was founded upon. “Let me be clear–failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all,” Johnson said.
Since winning the governor seat, the controversial Republican politician has focused heavily on social issues. Last year, the state made headlines after DeSantis signed the “Stop WOKE Act” into legislation, putting restrictions on how race and gender are discussed in classrooms, NBC News reported.

Under his administration, several areas of “concern” have been removal including Black Queer Studies, Movement for Black Lives, Black Feminist Literary Thought, The Reparations Movement and Black Struggle in the 21st Century. Books by Bell Hooks, Angela Davis and other Black authors have also been banned.

Newswire: IRS admits targeting Black taxpayers for audits

 Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D. C.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent


IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel has acknowledged what many have known for some time: Black taxpayers face an IRS audit exponentially more than other groups.
Werfel acknowledged the disparity in a letter this week in which he responded to a request for information about the “apparent racial disparity” in selecting tax returns for audit, along with a plan to address the issue.

“Let me start by stressing that the IRS is committed to enforcing tax laws in a fair and impartial manner,” Werfel said in the letter addressed to the U.S. Senate.
“When evidence of unfair treatment is presented, we must take immediate action to address it. It is also important to reiterate that we do not and will not consider race as part of our case selection and audit processes.”

He continued: “Nevertheless, a recent study estimated, using imputed race values, that Black taxpayers are audited at three to five times the rate of non-Black taxpayers. “The research further suggests that most of this disparity is driven by differences in correspondence audit rates among taxpayers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

“We are deeply concerned by these findings and committed to doing the work to understand and address any disparate impact of the actions we take.”

Werfel noted that as soon as Congress confirmed his appointment, he met with an IRS team that had already studied the issue of race discrimination in audits. He noted that the research has continued as authorities try to pinpoint what drives the disparity and how to fix the issue.

Researchers discovered that Black taxpayers are five times more likely to face an audit when filing federal returns than any other race.

When President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS received $80 billion, which the agency pledged to use to determine a better system to eliminate such discrimination.

“Back in March, my colleagues and I raised alarms with the new IRS boss about Black taxpayers being over-audited, and today he confirmed our suspicions,” tweeted Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.). “The IRS is making strides, but extra audits of Black Americans are disgraceful and must end.”

Werfel promised that the IRS would accelerate an existing research effort to detect and ensure compliance among “ghost preparers,” individuals who are paid to prepare returns for others but do not identify themselves to the IRS.

“Initial evidence confirms that unscrupulous and ghost preparers disproportionately prepare returns in minority communities,” Werfel noted.
“We are making broad efforts to advance our commitment to fair and equitable tax administration and evaluating the best ways to address bias within our audit program.”

Newswire: Study reveals staggering toll of being Black in America:1.6 million excess deaths over 22 years

Sick Black person in hospital

By Liz Szabo | KFF Health News


Research has long shown that Black people live sicker lives and die younger than white people.
Now a new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) casts the nation’s racial inequities in stark relief, finding that the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths relative to white Americans over more than two decades.
Because so many Black people die young — with many years of life ahead of them — their higher mortality rate from 1999 to 2020 resulted in a cumulative loss of more than 80 million years of life compared with the white population, the study showed.
Although the nation made progress in closing the gap between white and Black mortality rates from 1999 to 2011, that advance stalled from 2011 to 2019. In 2020, the enormous number of deaths from Covid-19 — which hit Black Americans particularly hard — erased two decades of progress.
Authors of the study describe it as a call to action to improve the health of Black Americans, whose early deaths are fueled by higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and infant mortality.
“The study is hugely important for about 1.63 million reasons,” said Herman Taylor, an author of the study and director of the cardiovascular research institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
“Real lives are being lost. Real families are missing parents and grandparents,” Taylor said. “Babies and their mothers are dying. We have been screaming this message for decades.”
High mortality rates among Black people have less to do with genetics than with the country’s long history of discrimination, which has undermined educational, housing, and job opportunities for generations of Black people, said Clyde Yancy, an author of the study and chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Black neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s — designated too “high risk” for mortgages and other investments — remain poorer and sicker today, Yancy said. Formerly redlined ZIP codes also had higher rates of Covid infection and death. “It’s very clear that we have an uneven distribution of health,” Yancy said. “We’re talking about the freedom to be healthy.”
A companion study estimates that racial and ethnic inequities cost the U.S. at least $421 billion in 2018, based on medical expenses, lost productivity, and premature death.
In 2021, non-Hispanic white Americans had a life expectancy at birth of 76 years, while non-Hispanic Black Americans could expect to live only to 71. Much of that disparity is explained by the fact that non-Hispanic Black newborns are 2½ times as likely to die before their first birthdays as non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic Black mothers are more than 3 times as likely as non-Hispanic white mothers to die from a pregnancy-related complication. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.)

Racial disparities in health are so entrenched that even education and wealth don’t fully erase them, said Tonia Branche, a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago who was not involved in the JAMA study.
Black women with a college degree are more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women without a high school diploma. Although researchers can’t fully explain this disparity, Branche said it’s possible that stress, including from systemic racism, takes a greater toll on the health of Black mothers than previously recognized.
Death creates ripples of grief throughout communities. Research has found that every death leaves an average of nine people in mourning.
Black people shoulder a great burden of grief, which can undermine their mental and physical health, said Khaliah Johnson, chief of pediatric palliative care at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Given the high mortality rates throughout the life span, Black people are more likely than white people to be grieving the death of a close family member at any point in their lives.
“We as Black people all have some legacy of unjust, unwarranted loss and death that compounds with each new loss,” said Johnson, who was not involved with the new study. “It affects not only how we move through the world, but how we live in relationship with others and how we endure future losses.”
Johnson’s parents lost two sons — one who died a few days after birth and another who died as a toddler. In an essay published last year, Johnson recalled, “My parents asked themselves on numerous occasions, ‘Would the outcomes for our sons have been different, might they have received different care and lived, had they not been Black?’”
Johnson said she hopes the new study gives people greater understanding of all that’s lost when Black people die prematurely. “When we lose these lives young, when we lose that potential, that has an impact on all of society,” she said.
And in the Black community, “our pain is real and deep and profound, and it deserves attention and validation,” Johnson said. “It often feels like people just pass it over, telling you to stop complaining. But the expectation can’t be that we just endure these things and bounce back.”

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Newswire : Farmworker complaints lead activists to challenge‘fairtrade’ label on South African wine

South African farmworker in grape orchard


Apr. 17, 2023 (GIN) – The label says “Fairtrade” but the conditions at some of South Africa’s money-making vineyards are anything but…
 
That’s what two academics from Rhodes University of South Africa concluded in a study of the country’s wine industry once characterized by the use of enslaved workers and the exploitation and paternalistic control of Black and coloured laborers by white farmers for over 300 years.
 
Following the end of apartheid and the country’s reintegration into the international community, winegrowers were able to import modern technologies and access global export markets for the first time. As a result, South Africa is now the ninth-largest producer of wine in the world and generates more than US$550 million in export value annually.
 
A number of wineries have formed to fulfill the standards of Fairtrade International such as workers’ rights and environmental protections. 
 
The group certifies products and ingredients after reviewing company practices and is a symbol commonly associated today with chocolate, coffee, cotton and various other items.
 
Fairtrade products are sold at a higher price because a percentage of the sale value is designated for day care centers, literacy programs and medical centers.
 
But interviews with a number of farmworkers suggest that while the wine bottles might bear the Fairtrade label, the workers on these farms do not feel fairly treated.
 
Of some 30 farmworkers interviewed, most were not even aware that the farm they worked on was Fairtrade certified. Several farmworkers reported poor and unsafe living and working conditions. One woman complained of the vineyard lacking toilets for women. “We have to relieve ourselves in the vineyards. The only toilets you see is when there is an audit.”
 
“We were promised that these houses would be temporary,” said another. “It is cold and when it rains the rain comes in. … We have reported this, and nothing happens. I have to constantly move my bed when it rains because the water comes through. I have been here since 1979. They [farm management] have ignored me. They don’t care.”
 
An investigative documentary (Cheap Wine, Bitter Aftertaste) that spotlights Germany, the second-largest importing country of South African wine after Great Britain, found problems. 
 
Eighty percent of farm workers in the wine sector were seasonal, forcing them to turn to the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund when the harvest season ends in March.
 
The minimum wage is about one third below the living wage needed to support a household, as calculated by the NGO Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity. 
 
As to working conditions, the workers’ harshest criticism was over the use of pesticides, particularly the herbicide paraquat which is banned in many countries. “There is no simple answer to the problems faced by workers on wine farms in South Africa, wrote Gisela ten Kate from the Dutch activist group SOMO in an article titled: “Labor Conditions in South African wine industry remain appalling.” 
 
“Dutch supermarkets need to take their role in the supply chain seriously, to pay fair prices so that farmers can pay a proper wage.
 
Finally, the human rights defender Oxfam International wrote: “We found proof of labor rights violations and inhumane conditions.”
 
Oxfam has been part of the global Fair Trade movement since its inception. Today, it still inspires many of volunteers to champion just and sustainable trade.
 
“We believe the current trade system is far from just or sustainable. It was captured by imperialistic and colonialist forces in the past and remains, even today, under the control of the powerful and the rich to a large extent.
 
“Trade justice,” affirmed Oxfam ,”offers an alternative approach. But As long as it excludes people and future generations from its welfare-creating properties, trade cannot be considered just or sustainable.”
 

Newswire: Biden issues proclamation for Black Maternal Health Week

 Black pregnant mother and child


 

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

In 2022, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra implemented actions to improve maternal health and reduce health disparities, and this year, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to champion policies to improve maternal health and equity.
Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting with Becerra and other Cabinet leaders amplifying a whole-of-government approach to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity.
On Monday, April 10, President Biden issued another proclamation to begin Black Maternal Health Week.
The president called the week a reminder that so many families experience pain, neglect, and loss during what should be a joyous occasion.
Biden called it urgent that all act.
“Black women in America are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women,” the president remarked.
“This is on top of the fact that women in America are dying at a higher rate from pregnancy-related causes than in any other developed nation.”
He insisted that tackling the crisis begins with understanding how institutional racism drives these high maternal mortality rates.
Studies show that Black women are often dismissed or ignored in hospitals and other health care settings, even as they suffer from severe injuries and pregnancy complications and ask for help, the president reminded.
He said systemic inequities are also to blame.
“When mothers do not have access to safe and stable housing before and after childbirth, they are at greater risk of falling ill,” Biden exclaimed.
“When women face barriers traveling to the hospital for prenatal and postpartum checkups, they are less likely to remain healthy. Air pollution, water pollution, and lead pipes can have dangerous consequences for pregnant women and newborns. And when families cannot afford nutritious foods, they face worse health outcomes.”
He claimed his administration has penned the blueprint for addressing the maternal health crisis, an agenda that lays out specific actions the federal government would take to improve maternal health and secured funding from Congress to help implement it.
“Vice President Kamala Harris has been a leader on the issue of maternal mortality for years and led the charge to improve maternal health outcomes, including by issuing a call to action to address disparities in maternal care,” Biden stated.
“She continues to elevate the issue nationally, convening State legislators, medical professionals, and others so all mothers can access the care they need before, during, and after childbirth.”
The president continued:
“Additionally, my American Rescue Plan gave States the option to provide a full year of postpartum coverage to Medicaid beneficiaries — up from just 60 days of coverage.
“As a result, my Administration has approved requests from 30 States and Washington, D.C. to provide women with Medicaid coverage with a full year of postpartum coverage, and we have made this option permanent for every State that extends Medicaid postpartum coverage.
“My Administration has helped facilitate Medicaid expansion in four States since I took office, and I continue to call on the Congress to close the Medicaid coverage gap.
“We are also working to expand and diversify the maternal health workforce, helping health care providers hire and train diverse and culturally competent physicians, certified nurse midwives, doulas, and community health workers to support women during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care.”
The president’s budget includes $471 million to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates, improving access to care in rural communities, expanding implicit bias training for health care providers, and further supporting the perinatal health workforce.
“This week, as we continue our work to make pregnancy and childbirth safe, dignified, and joyful for all, let us remember that health care should be a right and not a privilege,” Biden continued.
“Let us give thanks to the extraordinary maternal health care workforce, which serves its patients and their families every day. And let us join in common cause to end the tragedy of maternal mortality once and for all.”