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U.S. Maternal Mortality Rates

Floor Speech

Date: May 15, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care

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Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. State Department uses maternal mortality rates as one of its key metrics for evaluating how much a country values its women. By our own standards, the United States is failing that test as we rank just 47th for maternal mortality rate--the highest of any developed nation--and we remain one of the few countries that is actually seeing its rate of maternal mortality increase.

Our medical technology leads the world, and we spend more on healthcare than any other nation, but what we need is a commitment--a national commitment--to bringing together the experts, stakeholders, and, yes, resources to end preventable maternal deaths.

That is why I am proud to have introduced the Ending Maternal Mortality Act with Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler. Our legislation requires Federal health officials to develop a national strategy to combat maternal mortality with the goal of halving the rate of maternal mortality in the next decade and eliminating preventable maternal deaths entirely in the next 20 years.

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