Just as politics has destroyed our ability to respond equitably and appropriately to #Covid, politics is keeping Black moms and babies from thriving. If you haven’t read the new @Surgeon_General reports take a look: https://hhs.gov/sites/default/files/call-to-action-maternal-health.pdf A thread…1/7

The health and wellbeing before during and after pregnancy of Black women is not a political issue it is a Public Health issue. Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. 2/7

And to be clear, POLICY is needed to uphold and move forward the mission of public health but policy is very different than politics. 3/7

Politics have resulted in #ExecutiveOrder13950 censoring me and many others committed to speaking truth to power, watering down the language of 401 years of oppression & refusing to name the root cause of racial inequity…racism 4/7

In @Surgeon_General's report, the words and scholarship of Black scholars are eerily excluded. This is not about shameless self-promotion on my part, its about the continued erasure of Black scholarship and thus the underlying willingness to devalue Black moms and babies. 5/7

I’m going to name the scholars and policy makers including myself whose work should've been cited: @mclemoremr @drbdchambers @DrSlaughter99 @DrDaraDMendez @RJEpiOBWarrior @Dr_S_Jefferson @doccrearperry @PhDiva0618 @RootsBirthMpls @msnedhari @RepUnderwood @Ilhan @RepPressley 6/7

This report and its contents are sadly not surprising. However it's still disappointing and furthermore it is EXHAUSTING. Our moms and babies deserve better. So as @doccrearperry said yesterday: "What we building?" Onwards. #CiteBlackWomen 7/7