This bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to arrange for the National Academy of Medicine (or another appropriate entity) to study how domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, sex trafficking, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, reproductive coercion, intergenerational violence, trauma, or psychiatric disorders affect the risk of maternal morbidity and maternal mortality, including intimate partner homicide.
The study must examine whether and how those harms increase risk of suicide, homicide, substance use, drug overdose, or poor birth outcomes for pregnant and postpartum people. It must also consider whether those harms act as social determinants of health. The study should pay particular attention to impacts on Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Alaskan Native, LGBTQIA2S+ birthing people, and adolescent mothers.
The bill would also authorize the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), working with other federal health offices, to award grants to eligible entities to develop and implement innovative approaches to improve maternal and child health outcomes for victims of the listed harms. Eligible entities include State and local governments, Tribes, nonprofit and community organizations that provide related services, Tribal epidemiology centers, federally qualified health centers, community behavioral health clinics, hospitals, clinics, institutions of higher education, substance use treatment programs with parent services, and VA health facilities.
Grant priorities include projects that address domestic and sexual violence among pregnant people, services for people at risk of pregnancy because of violence, culturally relevant education and provider training (including antiracism and implicit bias strategies), Tribal-focused approaches, improvements to maternal health surveillance, and shared learning among grant recipients. The bill authorizes $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2029 to carry out the grant program.
Within 2 years of enactment, the Secretary must issue guidance to States, Tribes, territories, health care providers, and managed care entities on: universal education about healthy relationships and intimate partner violence; routine assessment of intimate partner violence and mental and behavioral health conditions; trauma-informed care plans and health promotion; and building sustainable partnerships between health care providers and community organizations that address the listed harms.
Definitions in the bill include maternal morbidity (health conditions attributed to or aggravated by pregnancy or childbirth) and maternal mortality (death during or within 1 year after pregnancy attributed to or aggravated by pregnancy or childbirth, including suicide, overdose, and homicide related to those conditions). Postpartum is defined as the 12-month period after childbirth.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.