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By Tanu Henry, Antonio Ray Harvey and Joe W. Bowers Jr. | California Black Media
Four years ago this month, Senate Bill (SB) 464, also known as the California’s Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act, was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The law, authored by LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, when she served in the State Senate, mandated that health care facilities implement training to address unconscious racial bias toward expectant mothers to address California’s high maternal death rate among Black women.
However, a report released by the California Department of Justice on Oct. 27, four years after the law was enacted, found that most hospitals and clinics either failed to implement the training or instituted it late.
“The disparity in maternal death rates in California reflects the deep and shameful racial inequities in our healthcare system,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement the DOJ released Friday.
“In California, people of color, particularly Black women, continue to die at three to four times the rate of White women,” Bonta continued. “This is unacceptable. With today’s report, the California Department of Justice has taken an important step forward in addressing this issue by successfully building upon the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act.”
According to Bonta, the United States has the highest maternal death rate in the developed world. He disclosed that one year into the program, less than 17% of health facilities in the state had initiated the mandated staff training, as reported to the DOJ. It was only after Bonta wrote a letter in 2021 threatening state intervention for non-compliance, that the percentage began to rise.
“As a Black woman, a mother, a legislator, and as a board-certified OBYGN, this topic of implicit bias and black maternal mortality is both personally and professionally important to me,” said Assemblymember Akilah Weber (D-La Mesa), a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), in a statement.
