Kansas mothers of color have worse outcomes. Advocates talk in-state maternity, legislative goals

TOPEKA — Kansas is not a safe place for Black and brown mothers to give birth. Maternal health advocates are now urging the state Legislature not to worsen the crisis.

During a recording for the Kansas Reflector podcast, Sharla Smith, the founder of the Kansas Birth Equity Network, Sapphire Garcia-Lies, the founder and executive director of Kansas Birth Justice Society, and Abriona Markham, executive director of Topeka Doula Project, shared their concerns about the Kansas maternity landscape.

The three are dedicated to reducing racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality and increasing better outcomes for mothers of color in a state that continues to lag behind neighboring states. 

“Without us fighting them, we know that the elected typically are going to do what they’re going to do,” Garcia-Lies said. “But we don’t have to stand by and be silent about our suffering and about how it’s hurting our community. And so that’s one of our major goals  as well, is to increase our voice at all of these levels. And to bring more of us to the table.”

Years of research illuminates these health disparities — the rate at which Kansas women of color die from pregnancy increased sharply over 20 years,  documented by a state-by-state analysis of maternal deaths. Black mothers in the state had higher death rates than the surrounding states in many of the years studied. Black women were more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes in Kansas than in the neighboring states of Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado.

“What the research showed me is that black women were dying, and so are their babies,” Markham said. “I had to figure out how to get closer to that.” 

Between 2016 to 2018, the premature birth rate for Black women in Kansas was 51% higher than the rate among all other women. For the same time frame, Black women accounted for 14% of pregnancy-associated deaths but only 7.1% of births in Kansas.

“Abortion rights are really important to us,” Garcia-Lies said. “We know that in a state like Kansas, where you have these runaway disparities, where black and brown people are dying at these high rates, that it is a matter of life or death sometimes whether you carry a pregnancy to term or not. And that needs to be a choice. And that should not be a choice that legislators are making for us.” 

Garcia-Lies warned against pregnancy center funding. In most cases faith-based, these organizations typically discourage abortion and aren’t subject to state oversight or regulation. Critics of the organizations say they can sometimes spread dangerous misinformation about the abortion process in attempts to sway vulnerable women. 

Last year, legislative Republicans overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto to start a state program aimed at convincing women dealing with unplanned pregnancies to give birth, awarding $2 million to a group led by several prominent anti-abortion organizers. 

While most of this year’s attempts to give these centers more funding have stalled out, Senate Bill 498, passed 28-12 in the Senate, would create the “pregnancy resource act.” Contributions to crisis pregnancy centers and maternity centers are set to receive a 70% tax credit, starting in tax year 2024, along with a sales tax exemption for these organizations under the bill. 

“We’re not seeing any legislation that is supporting families before pregnancy, during and after pregnancy,” Smith said. “We’re just seeing legislation that is controlling pregnancy…That’s going to make sure that these disparities are exacerbated, that these outcomes get worse and they affect those who have been affected by them for centuries. It doesn’t change.” 

This podcast is one of four podcasts the Kansas Reflector is doing in conjunction with the YWCA Northeast Kansas’ Racial Justice Challenge, a month-long series focusing on different topics.