Pennsylvania is becoming an increasingly dangerous place to be pregnant due to the actions, and inaction, of the longtime majority leadership of the General Assembly.
The outright abandonment of pregnant Pennsylvanians could not be made clearer by the fact that amid a pandemic and in the wake of a new report that shows 21.4% increase in preventable deaths of pregnant people between 2013 and 2018, leadership of the House Health Committee declared their current priority is to target pregnant people for surveillance, coercion, and deprivation of the rights rather help them survive the pandemic or childbirth.
Even worse, the maternal mortality rate is severely stratified by race: Black women account for 23% of pregnancy-related deaths while accounting for only 14% of births in the same period.
WLP’s Tara Murtha and Susan J. Frietsche documented how self-declared “pro-life” lawmakers of the General Assembly are promoting policies that’d increase maternal mortality and morbidity, and forcing pregnant Pennsylvanians to risk exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace:
Since COVID-19, we routinely receive calls from terrified pregnant Pennsylvanians who report being coerced back into physical workplaces yet not kept adequately safe from COVID-19. If they don’t live in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, we have to tell them the tragic truth: our state legislature’s leadership has abandoned them.
For years, advocates have been calling on the legislature to pass the Pennsylvania Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to fix this problem, without success. As the rest of the country implemented these protections, Pennsylvania has become an increasingly dangerous place to be pregnant.
Amid the pandemic, our legislators’ abandonment of pregnant workers has downright deadly, given people are more at risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19.
Read the rest of the op-ed here.
Help Protect Pregnant Workers from COVID-19
Pregnant Pennsylvanians have fewer workplace protections than most pregnant people in surrounding states—which means they have fewer options to protect themselves from COVID-19 at work.
We need you to call on legislators to support the PA Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (HB 990).
Please contact the majority chair of the Labor & Industry Committee in the Pennsylvania House Rep. Jim Cox and urge him to bring House Bill 990 (R-Delozier) for a committee vote. We also encourage you to urge your state Representative to sponsor this legislation.
Oppose Legislation That Would Increase Maternal Mortality
Contact Rep. Kathy Rapp, chair of the Health Committee in the Pennsylvania House to express your opposition to harmful abortion restrictions (listed in the op-ed) and urge her to promote legislation to protect, rather than harm, pregnant people.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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