Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, claims to stand for maternal health, but her actions speak otherwise. As a young woman proudly from Clark County and a current graduate student of public health at Yale University, I value quality maternal health care in Southwest Washington.
Firstly, I must recognize Herrera Beutler’s work in the House co-sponsoring two recent bills to help keep mothers safe during and after childbirth by expanding Medicaid coverage to mothers up to one-year postpartum and establishing a federal committee to investigate all maternal deaths. This work fighting maternal mortality is admirable; however, Herrera Beutler’s commitment to her self-proclaimed vision of building “real-life solutions to improve birth outcomes for mothers and children” falls short.
Does she want to help keep mothers safe? She must think bigger. Protecting women from the dangers of childbirth begins with comprehensive sexual health education, access to affordable birth control and universal access to health care. Her votes against Planned Parenthood funding, Title X, the Affordable Care Act and in favor of the Global Gag Rule directly assault women’s health in our corner of Washington and beyond.
Representative, if you want to truly promote women’s health and earn our votes, you must do more.
