Health Care

Sanders, Moore tout bipartisan solutions to address maternal healthcare gaps

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by TheHill.com - 05/10/26 6:11 PM ET

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by TheHill.com - 05/10/26 6:11 PM ET

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Sunday stressed the need for bipartisan cooperation to address maternal healthcare gaps.

On Mother’s Day, the two spoke to host Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about their work to improve access to care for mothers.

Sanders, a mother to three children, touted the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act, which she signed into law last year. The law directed roughly $45 million annually to promote maternal health and established, among multiple provisions, presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women.

The Arkansas governor, in conjunction with her state’s Department of Health, also launched a statewide campaign earlier this week to help mothers receive care close to home— before and after giving birth.

“If we can see these women and help them and support them from the very beginning of their pregnancy all the way through, then we can help address some of these problems and we can change maternal health,” Sanders told Welker. “Not just in our state, but across the country. We’re already seeing the positive impact by raising that awareness and opening up a lot of access.

“We have 75 counties in Arkansas. Every single county has an Arkansas health unit. And we’ve started an ad campaign where all women can go and receive services there for free in order to help change the trajectory of our state.”

Moore, who like Sanders has served as governor since January 2023, outlined the need to tap into resources from the government, the private sector and community organizations to address gaps in access.

He also highlighted a new partnership his administration entered with the Bridge Project to provide direct cash assistance to new moms. The Bridge Project, which has programs in 10 cities, counties or regions across the country, offers mothers financial support and community resources to assist them during pregnancy and “for the first several years” with their baby.

“It’s going to happen for 150 families in the … areas of Maryland that you’ve had concentrated poverty being a long-term challenge,” said Moore, a father of two. “And it’s now coming off the heels of additional initiatives that we pulled together, where we’ve reestablished the Governor’s Office for Children.”

“We’ve started something called the ENOUGH Initiative, which is actually an acronym that stands for engaging neighborhoods, organizations, unions, governments, and households, which is the nation’s first place-based, state-led anti-poverty initiative,” he added.

In December, 16.6 expectant mothers per 100,000 died in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That is lower than the mortality ratio of 33.2 per 100,000 set in 2021, but higher than the ratio of 11.3 per 100,000 reported 30 years ago, according to the CDC.

The health agency also stated in 2024 that nearly 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

Outcomes for Black mothers, according to CDC data, are even worse. In December, 46.3 per 100,000 Black mothers died, far higher than their White, Hispanic and Asian counterparts.

As for how to address that racial gap, Sanders and Moore had a variety of ideas.

Sanders noted the need for faith leaders, who have the “implied trust” of their communities, to engage on the topic. She also touted the 10:33 Initiative, a program she launched in October that aims to connect those in poverty with faith and community leaders.

“For us we say, ‘No wrong door.’ No matter where you show up to us, our system, we have a technology platform that is integrated,” Sanders told Welker. “So, if you come and you’re looking for maternal care, no matter where you show up on our doorstep we have connectivity to our nonprofit world, to our faith communities so that we can help provide those services.”

Moore, whose father died of acute epiglottis when he was just three years old, emphasized the need to improve diversity among physicians and nurses.

“We need to make sure that our physicians and our nurses are trained up,” he said. “But also, what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to strengthen the pipeline to get more physicians and nurses of color who are actually in there to increase the probability that when a person comes in they’re going to have someone who’s going to be treating them and supporting them who looks like them, who represents them.”

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