N.J. Rep. Calls Sen. Cassidy’s Black Maternal Mortality Comment ‘Rooted in White Supremacy’: He ‘Seems Content to Let Black Mothers Die’
Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for MoveOn.org
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) went off on Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)’s comment that Louisiana’s maternal mortality rate wouldn’t be as much of an outlier “if you correct our population for race.”
Coleman called the statement “rooted in white supremacy,” and wrote that his suggestion of correcting the data “means eliminating Black maternal health outcomes entirely.”
According to a USA Today article based on birth rates in 2016 and death rates from 2012 to 2016, Louisiana ranked the lowest with a death rate 58.1 per 100,000 births. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average nationwide in 2017 was 17.3 deaths per 100,000 births.
Cassidy told Politico that “about a third of our population is African American” and “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’d otherwise appear,” Cassidy said. “Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”
He added that he thinks the broad way in which Louisiana classifies maternal death has contributed to the higher rate as well.
In a Twitter thread on Saturday, Coleman criticized Cassidy’s remarks and said he has “no desire to dismantle these inequities” that create disproportionate maternal health outcomes.
“GOP elected officials like Sen. Cassidy have no desire to dismantle these inequities — it’s easier for them to ignore them,” she wrote. “Because dismantling health inequities means acknowledging systemic racism, and it’s against his best interests to do that.”
GOP elected officials like Sen. Cassidy have no desire to dismantle these inequities — it’s easier for them to ignore them. Because dismantling health inequities means acknowledging systemic racism, and it’s against his best interests to do that. (4/8)
— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) May 21, 2022
She continued: “It’s no surprise that a member of the party that scores political points by spewing conspiratorial ‘great replacement’ rhetoric and fomenting moral panics about so-called critical race theory in schools is perfectly comfortable ignoring the plight of Black American mothers.”
Referencing Cassidy’s stance on abortion, Coleman went on to argue that as a pro-life lawmaker, he “should have a vested interest in ending maternal health disparities.”
A truly “pro-life” Senator should have a vested interest in ending maternal health disparities. Instead, Sen. Cassidy seems content to let Black mothers die as a result of pregnancies that his party would like to force them to carry. (6/8)
— Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (@RepBonnie) May 21, 2022
“Instead, Sen. Cassidy seems content to let Black mothers die as a result of pregnancies that his party would like to force them to carry,” she added.
