Lauren Underwood

Sexual, Reproductive, and Maternal Health in America

Meg Tirrell, Michael Lu, Christy Turlington Burns, Lauren Underwood, Leana Wen

With over 700 U.S. women dying annually from pregnancy-related causes and stark racial disparities driving these statistics, Representative Lauren Underwood established the bipartisan Black Maternal Health Caucus to mobilize legislative action and secure federal funding for research. This caucus is advancing critical reforms including extending Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months, mandating implicit bias training for accredited providers, and scaling safety bundle protocols that have previously reduced maternal mortality by 60%. Addressing systemic barriers such as over-medicalization and social determinants, the initiative seeks to replace the archaic six-week checkup model with continuous care and technology integration to treat maternal health with the urgency of other major public health crises.