Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said that the state’s poor maternal mortality rate is only an “outlier” because of the high proportion of Black women in the state, according to Politico.
Cassidy’s comment was featured in Politico’s in-depth exploration of Louisiana’s maternal death rates, which are among the worst in the country. The state ranks 47 out of 48 states assessed for maternal deaths, state officials said.
Cassidy told the outlet that this is partly because “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’d otherwise appear.”
He continued: “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.”
Overall, according to Louisiana’s Department of Health, “four black mothers die for every white mother” in the state. It outpaces a three-to-one ratio nationwide, which is already the worst in the developed world, Politico reported.
Dean Michelle Williams of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health discussed Cassidy’s comments in a blog post. (The Politico article was produced as part of a series partnership with the school.)
Williams said: “It’s no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women. They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias.”
According to the CDC, Black women are disadvantaged in their “access to care, quality of care, prevalence of chronic diseases, structural racism, and implicit biases” in healthcare.
Williams said she found Cassidy’s framing “disturbing.”
“This is not a moment to quibble about how states are ranked,” Williams wrote.
“It’s not a moment to correct for race. It’s a moment to assert that Louisiana — precisely because it has such a large population of Black women — must seize a leadership role in making pregnancy and childbirth safer for all.”
She noted that Cassidy has supported numerous public health measures, including those that protect pregnancies and the healthcare outcomes of people of color.
These include the bipartisan Maternal Health Quality Improvement Act, which includes a grant program for ethnic bias training for healthcare providers; and a bill promoting research into minority health disparities.
Cassidy’s comment comes soon after Politico’s publishing of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a measure that the Senator supports.
Anti-abortion organization Louisiana Right To Life says that Cassidy has a “100% pro-life voting record.” Louisiana is also one of 13 states with “trigger laws” that would come into effect to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade, as looks likely, is overturned.
Following the Roe leak, top British medical journal The Lancet warned in a stark editorial statement that “women will die” if the decision is overturned. Furthermore, Black women will be the group most affected by the move, ABC News reported.
Asked by Politico how maternal death rates may be affected by the measure, Cassidy said: “If we’re using abortion to limit maternal deaths, that’s kind of an odd way to approach the problem.”
