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To Improve Health Care For Black Pregnant People, Bill Would Fine Hospitals That Ignore Bias Training
A vigil outside of Centinela Hospital Medical Center where April Valentine died during childbirth last year.
(
Mariana Dale
/
LAist
)
Topline:
California Attorney General Rob Bonta wants hospitals to be held accountable with financial penalties if they don’t train maternal care providers on racism and implicit bias in accordance with a 2020 law.
Why it matters: In California, Black birthing people are three to four times more likely to die during pregnancy, birth or shortly after.
What have lawmakers already done? They passed a law that, beginning in 2020, required hospitals and facilities that provide maternal care to train all of their perinatal providers on implicit bias. But when the California Department of Justice went to investigate over a year later, it found only 17% of hospitals were in compliance with the law. That number rose to 81% when the investigation ended in July 2022, but the attorney general’s office doesn’t have any new data since then.
What's next: Lawmakers have introduced new legislation that would, in part, put firm deadlines on training and require facilities to report compliance data by every February. It also would give the California Department of Public Health the power to issue fines of up to $25,000 if hospitals don’t comply, and make that information available to the public.
Go deeper: A Los Angeles Family Seeks Answers — And Accountability — After Black Mom Dies In Childbirth
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