Sponsors (213)
Official title: To end preventable maternal mortality, severe maternal morbidity, and maternal health disparities in the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 18, 2026 by Lauren Underwood · Last progress March 18, 2026
The bill makes a substantial, multi‑faceted federal investment to reduce maternal deaths and disparities through funding, research, workforce development, and expanded services, but it increases federal spending, regulatory and reporting burdens, privacy risks, and may leave gaps because many programs are modest, time‑limited, or slow to yield measurable local results.
Pregnant and postpartum people (especially Medicaid enrollees, rural residents, and racial/ethnic minorities) will benefit from a coordinated, multi‑agency federal effort that funds prevention, clinical and community programs aimed at reducing maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity.
Low‑income postpartum people and Medicaid/CHIP enrollees will get greater continuity of supports (WIC extended to 24 months postpartum, Medicaid‑related coverage clarifications, telehealth screening, and pilot payment models) improving nutrition access and continuity of postpartum care.
Community organizations and the perinatal workforce will receive grants, technical assistance, scholarships, and training (including culturally and linguistically congruent and bias‑reduction training) to expand local capacity and diversify maternity, mental‑health, and nutrition providers.
Taxpayers face materially higher federal spending across many new authorizations (multiple programs totaling hundreds of millions annually), creating budget pressures and potential tradeoffs with other priorities.
States, providers, and community grantees will incur substantial new administrative and reporting requirements (data disaggregation, evaluations, annual reports, grant compliance) that can divert staff time from direct care and complicate implementation.
Many programs are limited in scale or time‑limited (single grants, capped numbers of awards, multi‑year pilot timelines), risking uneven geographic coverage and services that may lapse when initial federal funding ends.
Based on analysis of 17 sections of legislative text.
Expands maternal health programs, grants, research, surveillance, WIC coverage, VA and prison supports, and a Medicaid/CHIP perinatal payment-model demonstration to reduce maternal mortality and disparities.
Creates a coordinated federal effort to reduce preventable maternal mortality, severe maternal morbidity, and maternal health disparities by funding research, grants, community programs, data collection, and targeted demonstrations across agencies. Key changes include extending WIC postpartum and breastfeeding eligibility, new grant programs for community organizations and maternal mental health, a Medicaid/CHIP perinatal payment-model demonstration, strengthened maternal surveillance during public health emergencies, VA maternity reporting and funding, prison programs for pregnant and postpartum incarcerated people, climate-related maternal health grants, and NIH research funding.