S. Res. 675 is a Senate resolution that formally supports designating April 11–17, 2026, as "Black Maternal Health Week" and compiles a set of findings about maternal mortality and morbidity among Black women and birthing people in the United States.
The text assembles recent CDC statistics, identifies structural drivers such as racism and maternity-care deserts, and names specific priorities — from continuous postpartum insurance to workforce investments and decriminalization — that the authors say Congress should pursue.
Why it matters: the resolution packages epidemiology, policy prescriptions, and community recognition into a single symbolic document that elevates a policy agenda. Because it is nonbinding, the resolution itself does not create programs or funding, but it signals congressional priorities, can focus federal and state attention, and may be used by advocates and agencies to justify subsequent legislative or administrative action.
At a Glance
What It Does
The resolution designates the week of April 11–17, 2026 as Black Maternal Health Week, catalogs CDC data on maternal mortality and morbidity by race, and calls on Congress to support policies addressing housing, transportation, insurance coverage, workforce development, and decriminalization in maternal care.
Who It Affects
Primary stakeholders include Black women and birthing people, community-based perinatal providers (midwives, doulas), public-health researchers, state and federal health agencies, and advocacy organizations that will use the designation to press for funding and policy change.
Why It Matters
Although symbolic, the resolution consolidates a specific policy platform — e.g., at least 1 year of postpartum coverage and investments in Black-led care — into an official Senate statement, increasing political and administrative pressure for concrete actions that follow.
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What This Bill Actually Does
S. Res. 675 is a statement resolution: it does not authorize spending or change law, but it gathers a set of factual findings and policy priorities into a single, formal Senate position.
The resolution opens with CDC-derived statistics documenting a sharply higher maternal mortality rate for Black women (including the 2023 figure of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births cited in the text) and notes trend data across 2020–2023. It then lists clinical drivers of those deaths (embolism, hemorrhage, preeclampsia, cardiomyopathy) alongside structural contributors such as racism, maternity-care deserts, low Medicaid reimbursement, and workforce shortages.
Beyond the findings, the resolution explicitly elevates policy responses. It urges Congress to support continuous health insurance coverage through at least one year postpartum, invest in Black-led and community-based maternal health programs, expand the perinatal workforce pipeline, and address social determinants such as housing, transportation, food access, and environmental exposures.
It also calls for decriminalization and removal of certain surveillance and punitive practices in criminal and family regulation systems, and for ending practices like shackling incarcerated people in labor.The text names Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Inc. as the founder of the designated week and directs attention to community-driven solutions — midwives, doulas, perinatal health workers, and organizations that provide holistic care. Because the resolution bundles analytic findings with concrete policy asks, it functions as a roadmap advocates can cite when seeking legislation or budget authority, even though it imposes no statutory requirements itself.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The resolution officially supports naming April 11–17, 2026, as "Black Maternal Health Week," recognizing Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Inc. as the founder.
The text cites CDC statistics showing a 2023 maternal mortality rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births for Black women and provides year-by-year national figures for 2020–2023.
The resolution identifies clinical causes (embolisms, hemorrhage, eclampsia/preeclampsia, postpartum cardiomyopathy) and systemic drivers (structural racism, maternity-care deserts, low Medicaid reimbursement) as contributors to disparities.
It urges policy priorities including continuous health insurance coverage for at least 1 year postpartum, investment in Black-led community care and perinatal workforce pipelines, and actions to remove criminalizing surveillance practices against pregnant and postpartum people.
Although it urges Congress to act, the resolution is nonbinding and does not appropriate funds, change eligibility rules, or create regulatory mandates.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Findings: data and causes
The preamble compiles CDC data and sets out both clinical and structural causes of the Black maternal health crisis. Practical implication: the findings create an evidentiary base that advocates and agencies can reference when proposing funding streams, programmatic changes, or regulatory guidance, but the findings themselves carry no statutory force.
Identification of systemic drivers (racism, maternity-care deserts, workforce shortages)
These clauses move beyond clinical descriptions to name systemic contributors — structural racism, devaluation of Black-led care, Medicaid reimbursement shortfalls, and 'maternity care deserts.' That framing pushes policy conversations toward social determinants and payment reforms rather than only clinical interventions, shaping the scope of any future legislative fixes.
Calls out criminal justice and reproductive-rights impacts
The resolution condemns punitive practices — shackling in labor, drug testing without consent, and criminalizing pregnancy outcomes — and connects the overturning of Roe-era protections to expanded reproductive oppression. This inserts criminal-justice reform and reproductive autonomy into the maternal health agenda, enlarging the policy coalition but also making follow-on legislation politically complex.
Congressional recognitions and policy priorities
These paragraphs list recognitions — that rates are unacceptable and rooted in systemic inequities — and enumerate policy priorities: ensuring safe housing, transportation equity, nutritious food, environmental safety, living wages, workforce pipelines, and comprehensive health care. For implementation, these items point to cross-cutting federal levers (housing, labor, environmental, and health programs) that would require interagency planning and likely new or redirected funding to satisfy.
Purpose of Black Maternal Health Week
This clause states explicit aims for the week: deepen national conversation, amplify Black-led research and care models, center affected voices, and drive funding toward community-based organizations and perinatal workers. The practical effect is symbolic: the designation functions as an organizing moment for advocacy, grant-making, public-health campaigns, and agency proclamations.
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Who Benefits
- Black women and birthing people — the resolution centers their experiences, elevates their health outcomes as a national priority, and endorses specific policy goals (e.g., at least one year of postpartum coverage) intended to improve care continuity.
- Community-based perinatal providers (Black midwives, doulas, perinatal health workers) — the text explicitly calls for investments and removal of barriers to licensure and reimbursement, increasing legitimacy and advocacy leverage for expanded roles and funding.
- Public-health researchers and data programs — the resolution's reliance on CDC figures and its emphasis on trend data can justify expanded surveillance, grants, and targeted research into racial disparities and drivers of maternal mortality.
- Advocacy organizations (especially Black-led groups) — formal Senate backing creates a national platform to push for legislation, appropriations, and administrative action, and it can help in fundraising and coalition-building.
Who Bears the Cost
- Congress and federal agencies — while the resolution itself is symbolic, fulfilling its priorities (postpartum coverage, housing, workforce development) would require legislative changes and likely budgetary commitments across HHS, HUD, Labor, and Medicaid programs.
- State Medicaid programs and insurers — proposals for extended postpartum coverage or higher reimbursement rates would shift financial responsibilities and require administrative changes at the state level.
- Health systems and hospitals in underserved areas — pressure to fill maternity-care deserts and expand culturally congruent models may force investments in staffing, facility upgrades, or new birthing centers, with short-term costs.
- Community organizations — increased visibility may raise service demand before matching funding materializes, stretching limited operational capacity and requiring new fundraising or partnerships.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between the resolution's clear articulation of urgent, multisectoral fixes to a racialized public-health crisis and its strictly symbolic form: it raises expectations for systemic change while providing no funding, enforcement mechanism, or detailed policy design — forcing advocates and lawmakers to translate moral urgency into politically and fiscally concrete proposals.
S. Res. 675 is explicitly aspirational: it bundles data, normative statements, and policy preferences into a resolution that does not appropriate money or alter statutory authorities.
That creates an implementation gap — the document signals priorities but leaves open who will pay for them and how they will be operationalized. For example, urging "continuous health insurance coverage for at least 1 year postpartum" points to Medicaid policy changes or new federal mandates, but the resolution does not specify whether coverage should be federally funded, optional for states, or how eligibility and benefits would be defined.
The resolution also mixes different types of policy asks: clinical quality improvements, social determinants (housing, food, environment), workforce pipeline creation, and criminal-justice reforms. Each of those areas falls under different agencies and budget authorities, which complicates any unified implementation plan.
Another unresolved question is regulatory friction: the text calls for removing barriers to licensure and reimbursement for Black midwives and doulas but does not address scope-of-practice conflicts, state licensing variability, or payer credentialing rules that often limit rapid scale-up.
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