WATCH: Republican Senator Makes Jaw-Dropping Remarks About Black Women and Maternal Mortality in His State
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy gave a jaw-dropping answer to a question about the maternal mortality rate in his home state of Louisiana, pointing out — among other things — that it’s not so bad if you don’t count all the Black women.
Cassidy sat for a lengthy interview with Politico Reporter Sarah Owermohle, who asked Cassidy about a variety of health-related subjects, including the Justice Samuel Alito-authored draft opinion that would overturn the constitutionally right to abortion should it become final.
But early in the interview, Owermohle drew out a startling response from Cassiday when she asked about the high rate of maternal mortality in Louisiana. He pointed out that his state’s maternal mortality rate is not an “outlier” if you “correct our population for race,” and also said that some definitions of maternal mortality include “someone being killed by her boyfriend”:
SARAH OWERMOHLE: Because you raised maternal care and the importance of, you know, caring for mothers throughout pregnancy and childbirth, I know that Louisiana ranks very low or I should say very high on maternal deaths amongst the states. So what do you think needs to be done there to improve that, especially if forms of abortion or birth control could be limited in the future?
SEN. CASSIDY: I’m not sure people are talking about limiting forms of birth control. And and shall we say, if you’re using abortion to limit maternal death, that’s kind of a odd way to approach the problem. But anyway, that said. Louisiana. (Exhales) About a third of our population is African-American. African-Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it would otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue, but to focus the issue as to where it would be. Um, for whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. Now, to be sure, there’s different definitions of maternal mortality. Sometimes maternal mortality includes up to a year after birth and would include someone being killed by her boyfriend. So. So in my mind, it’s better to restrict your definition to that, which is the perinatal, if you will, the time just before and in the subsequent period after she has delivered.
Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin flagged the exchange, and reported on the response from a public health expert:
There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s start with the idea that Cassidy—who wants to defund Planned Parenthood is all, Yes, on its face, our maternal mortality rates are abysmal, but if you only count white women, they’re not that bad! Then there’s the phrase “for whatever reason.” In fact, there is one very big reason in particular— perhaps you can take a guess? “It’s no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women,” Michelle Williams, the dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health said in response. “They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias.” As Politico notes, Black mothers are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white mothers in the U.S., which has the worst mortality rate among developed nations and where “17 mothers die for every 100,000 pregnancies in the country.” In Louisiana, Black mothers are four times as likely to die than white mothers.
Watch above via Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
