Pritzker proposes $23 million to improve Black maternal health: ‘In Illinois, we have to take action’

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed $23 million in funding to improve birth equity and maternal health outcomes for Black women would include grants for community health care providers and a $1 million pilot program to ensure low-income moms have diapers. Pritzker highlighted the initiative on Monday at a former church on the South Side — the future home of the Chicago South Side Birth Center. Founded by Jeanine Valrie Logan, a midwife and advocate, the center will offer community-based health care and birth rooms. The governor called the center a model for how Illinois can decrease Black maternal mortality. And Valrie Logan would be able to apply for a birth equity grant, part of a $4.4 million allocation the governor is seeking from the Illinois Department of Public Health. “Every woman, no matter her income level, has the right to a healthy and safe pregnancy,” Pritzker said. “There’s no freedom of choice without access to a full spectrum of reproductive health care for women and new mothers.” A state report last year revealed Black women in Illinois were three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related medical conditions than white women. “That is a shame, and we need to reverse that,”...