Earlier this week, we were treated to Rep. Kat Cammack blaming “the left” for an ectopic pregnancy nearly killing her last year. Now she’s back at it, attacking the Biden administration for the closure of maternal health clinics across the country during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing this Tuesday.
Cammack, of course, ignored the underlying reason for these closures, and her support for the Dobbs decision.
From CNN last year: First on CNN: US faces maternity care crisis, with 1 in 3 counties lacking obstetric doctors to provide care, report warns:
The United States is facing an ongoing maternity health crisis in which 1 in every 3 counties does not have a single obstetric clinician, affecting women’s access to care, according to a new report.
The report, released Tuesday by the infant and maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes, says that in many parts of the country, obstetrician/gynecologists and family physicians who deliver babies are leaving the workforce, which worsens access to care. […]
Family physicians provide maternity care in some areas where access to ob/gyns is limited or nonexistent, according to the new report. Family physicians account for 1 in 4 obstetric clinicians in rural counties, compared with just 1 in 20 in urban counties, the new report says, and family physicians practicing in rural counties are more likely to report delivering babies than those in urban counties.
The new report also says that the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, continues to affect how and where ob/gyns train and deliver care.
“In states with the most restrictive abortion laws, physicians face severe consequences, including the potential risks of losing their medical licenses and imprisonment for providing abortions, including ones that are medically necessary,” according to the report.
The report added that data from 2021 showed that states where abortion is now prohibited had fewer ob/gyns for every 10,000 births compared with states where abortion rights were upheld.
“In those states that have the strictest abortion bans, there are an increased number of providers who say that it is changing the way that they’re able to take care of their patients,” Williams said.
Look at this screenshot from their report on where the maternity care deserts are located:
Here’s the exchange with Cammack and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., where she pretended that somehow “streamlining” HHS is going to solve this problem, and ignored the fact that their “Big Beautiful Bill” will make this problem worse as well.
CAMMACK: As someone who represents a very large and rural district in Florida, and cares deeply about access to care, especially for our underserved communities, I’ve seen the good that HHS can do, but I’ve also seen where the bureaucracy, falls short in helping people, particularly in rural areas, so I’m encouraged significantly by your willingness and efforts to restructure the department.
Now I know that there are many broken systems within HHS and it’s gonna take a disrupter and sir you are a disruptor and that’s what we need in these times because so many people, especially here in Congress, they want to maintain the same broken status quo.
I think collectively as Americans, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, we can agree that we have sick care in this country, not health care and the culture has been all about maintenance rather than prevention, and so I appreciate all of your efforts in working to try to address that.
So I’m just gonna jump right in.
As you know, Secretary Kennedy, under the previous administration of Joe Biden, maternal health deserts expanded significantly, leaving over 2.5 million women without access to any sort of maternal health care.
In fact, I believe it was 1 in 25 maternal health clinics closed under the previous administration. And you’ve pointed out that there are more than 40 different maternal health programs scattered across HHS.
So from where I sit, that sounds like a lot of bureaucracy, and I want us to focus on patient outcomes and improving those such as like you do.
So walk us through how you’re planning on streamlining and making a more coordinated effort to deliver health care to moms and moms to be around the country.
KENNEDY: Yeah, I mean this is a priority for President Trump. It’s a priority for me personally. We have a maternal health crisis in this country. It disproportionately impacts minorities.
Black mothers have a 2.6 times greater chance of dying in childbirth. A black mother with a college education has 2.6 times greater chance of dying in childbirth than a mother, than a white mother with a high school education.
So it’s impacting those communities, but it’s impacting every American. And we need to protect our moms, we need to protect our kids, and we need to do a lot better, so, and we intend to do that in this administration.
CAMMACK: Well, as someone who is 8 weeks out from delivery, I know you can’t see it because I’m so short, but, I appreciate that, and I look forward to working with you so we can streamline these services so moms, can get the help and, and access to resources they need.
The March of Dimes report called for expanding Medicaid and increasing reimbursement rates, which is the opposite of what Republicans want to do if their bill passes.
