Stillbirth Health Improvement and Education for Autumn Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Pallone for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, here in the United States, we continue to grapple with a maternal and infant health crisis. There are approximately 24,000 stillbirths in the United States each year, and we rank 25th among 49 high-income countries in stillbirth rates.

There are longstanding and persistent racial and ethnic disparities, with Black women experiencing stillbirths at two times the rate of White women.

So we need real change that will help lead to measurable improvements in health. That is why I was pleased to introduce the Stillbirth Health Improvement and Education for Autumn, or SHINE for Autumn Act, with my colleagues, Representatives Herrera Beutler, Roybal-Allard, and Mullin.

Through the bill, we intend to improve the research and data collection on stillbirths. We want to authorize grants for surveillance and data collection. We are going to develop guidelines and educational materials and create a fellowship at NIH to dive deeper into the research.

The bill is named in honor of Autumn Joy, who was stillborn on July 8, 2011. Her mother, Debbie, turned this tragedy into advocacy. She spearheaded the effort to increase stillbirth awareness and education and lower stillbirth rates. And I am proud to help lead the legislation in Autumn's memory.

I want to thank Debbie for her perseverance on behalf of families across America. This heartbreaking loss can happen in any family, and there is so much we still do not know. So this new law, this bill, SHINE for Autumn Act, will help avoid a lot of the tragedy that Debbie, unfortunately, found with the death of her daughter, Autumn.

So I ask my colleagues to support the SHINE for Autumn Act.

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