Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley announced today that his bipartisan legislation with Louisiana’s Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. to address America’s stillbirth crisis has been signed into law. The Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act amends federal law to clarify that stillbirth prevention activities are an allowable use of federal funds, saving the lives of mothers and babies.
“A single stillbirth is one too many. We must do more to address this dire public health crisis, which devastates families and happens at a higher rate to Black, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native women,” said Merkley. “My Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act takes long overdue action to confront our stillbirth crisis head-on and protect mothers and children nationwide. I’ll keep fighting to deliver the necessary resources for stillbirth prevention and research, ending this public health crisis once and for all.”
Recent reports and data suggest the United States can and must do more to prevent stillbirth, highlighting that at least 25 percent of stillbirths are potentially preventable. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of 175 U.S. births tragically result in stillbirths—accounting for nearly 21,000 stillbirths a year—more stillbirths annually than the number of babies who pass away during their first year of life. In the last two decades, the stillbirth rate in the United States declined by a negligible 0.4 percent, and, in a report published by the World Health Organization comparing progress in improving stillbirth rates, the United States ranked 183 out of 195 countries.
The Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act passed the Senate unanimously and passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 408-3. In the Senate, it was cosponsored by Senators Angus King Jr. (I-ME), Jim Risch (R-ID), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Rick Scott (R-FL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). The House version was led by U.S. Representatives Ashley Hinson (R-IA-02) and Alma Adams (D-NC-12).
The Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act was supported by Healthy Birth Day, 1st Breath, Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health (formerly 2020 Mom), 2 Degrees Foundation, Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP), March of Dimes, Measure the Placenta, Mom Congress, PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, “Reproductive and Placental Research Unit, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine”, Return to Zero: H.O.P.E., Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), Every Mother Counts, Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), Start Healing Together, M.E.N.D. (Mommies Enduring Neonatal Death), Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI), American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), What to Expect Project, Postpartum Support International, Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE) Foundation, National Education Association (NEA), Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (NPWH), Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance, SUDC Foundation, and RH Impact.
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