Bill launches a fight against hospitals that turn their backs on hard working black women

Sources for Mercedes, a black woman in Indiana, went viral earlier this month after she released a video showing herself being sent home from the hospital while working. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) has introduced a bill in Congress that aims to prevent hospitals from changing women while they are working.

According to NBC News, the women’s expansion of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, or the Sports Act, would require hospitals to use “a safe evacuation plan before removing a patient from symptoms or signs of labor.” The Safe Decisioner Labor Program will see hospitals providing clinical justification for these discharges, assessing distance and time before agreeing to discharge, and obtaining written consent from the patient. The Health Act will also require health care professionals to be trained in racial profiling.

“My bill aims to address systemic issues with maternal care, racial disparities and hospital responsiveness,” Kelly said. “It is clear that what happened in Mercedes is not an isolated incident, and it is not the first time that the pain of a black woman has been ignored.”

“Until all women are heard and listened to in our hospitals and health centers, I will be their voice in Congress fighting for change,” Kelly said.

On November 16, Mercedes’ husband rushed her to the Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital where her contracts were 10 minutes apart. After six hours, Wells only received an examination from a nurse before being discharged from the hospital. She never saw a doctor and was injured giving birth to her fourth child in her car seat, just 8 minutes after leaving the hospital.

“It was a terrible situation to be treated like a dog, or not like a dog, like less than that,” Wells told NBC News. “It means they don’t care at all about black women in life, and it hurts. We thought, you know, things have changed at this point in our country, and I don’t see that changing.”

Francis Health President and CEO Raymond Grady told NBC News that the nurse and doctor who refused to provide proper care for Mercedes are no longer working properly at the hospital. Grady also issued a formal apology to the family of the beneficiary. “We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns,” CEO Raymond Grady said in a statement. “We must fix what has failed in our hospital so that no one experiences what happened at the Mercedes wells.”

Sadly, Mercedes Wells’ experience is not uncommon for black women. Black women have the highest maternal mortality rates and are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. These rates are only revealed in states like Texas and Georgia, where strict abortion restrictions have led to the unnecessary deaths of black women, as in the case of Amber Thurman.

Black people already have an increased distrust of medical professionals due to historical mistreatment and racial bias in health care. The Mercedes Wells experience does little to dispel the notion that the American Health Care system is designed to work against black people. I hope this bill passes, so some women will have to endure what Mercedes sources go through.

BREAKFUT:

White women in medicine always pay attention to black women who are pregnant

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