Maternal health bills continue moving through the Virginia legislature

Democratic lawmakers celebrated the continued advancement of a suite of bills and budget amendments aimed at improving maternal health outcomes, dubbed the “Virginia Momnibus.”

The package includes increased Medicaid reimbursements for midwives, expanded doula coverage to support parents postpartum, expedited Medicaid enrollment for pregnant people, and creation of a commission to study women’s health policy. There are also proposed investments in pilot programs for a hypertension and diabetes monitoring program (two health conditions pregnancy can exacerbate) and an employee child care assistance program. 

While some measures are reintroductions of previous legislation, others stem from outreach efforts over the past year to include a committee that toured the state to focus on rural health care issues at-large. 

About 30% of Virginia counties lack a birthing center within a 30-minute drive, according to the March of Dimes, a nonprofit that works to enhance the health of mothers and babies. In Southwest and Southside Virginia, recent years have seen the closure of several obstetrics units.  

While Republican lawmakers pressed to fund medical residencies in last year’s budget and Gov. Glenn Youngkin aims to do so again, there are also proposals to bolster midwives and doulas — maternal health workers who’ve played crucial roles already in addressing maternal health care gaps. 

“This is a moral imperative to fix our high maternal mortality rates, but it is also an economic imperative to fix it. A striving economy starts with striving families,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said at a press conference Wednesday morning to mark continued advancement of the Democratic-led bills. 

The measures so far cleared their chambers of origin and are advancing through the next. To become law, legislation must clear both the House of Delegates and Virginia’s Senate before the governor can sign them, seek amendments or veto them. 

An idea already on its way to Youngkin’s desk faced his scrutiny and ultimate veto last year. 

Senate Bill 740 by Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and House Bill 1649 by Del. Cliff Hayes, D-Suffolk, would require implicit bias training for medical professionals when renewing licenses. 

Studies show Black parents-to-be are more likely to experience negative maternal health outcomes, in part, due to providers’ racial bias. Black women are also more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. 

Those statistics are why Sen. Chris Head, R-Botetourt, has been a co-sponsor of Locke’s bill to lend support. 

“Women whose skin is darker than my wife’s skin have significantly worse outcomes, “ he said last year. “Something needs to be examined and done about that.” 

In lieu of a veto, Youngkin first sought to amend the bill to require “two hours of continuing learning activities that address maternal health care for populations of women that data indicate experience significantly greater than average maternal mortality.”

As she did last year, Locke said that reduction “gutted” the bill. She also reaffirmed a statement from last year that Youngkin’s veto demonstrated a “case of unconscious bias and a lack of cultural competency.”

When asked about pending legislation that could await his review, including Locke’s bill, the governor’s spokesperson Christian Martinez said that Youngkin “has made it a priority to tackle the disparity in maternal health outcomes through a data-driven process that focuses on helping mothers deliver healthy babies.” 

More broadly, Youngkin’s team points to an executive directive he issued for the state health department to include pregnancy-related data on its Maternal and Child Health Data dashboard. His own budget requests include funding to support doulas and a public awareness campaign about life-threatening complications. 

With the legislative session winding to a close by the end of this month, the governor and lawmakers will also work to finalize agreed upon state budget amendments in the coming months.