NJ bill looks to address maternal health barriers

TRENTON, N.J. (PIX11) – For Assemblywoman Shanique Speight, maternal health is personal.

“When we talk about maternal mortality, and maternal health, and we talk about morbidity, and we’re in the year 2025, we still have a lot of work to do,” said Speight (D-NJ 29^th District).

A bill she’s authoring hopes to make a difference by bringing remote maternal services to some expecting moms on Medicaid. Maternal health is an issue that hits home.

“My husband’s mother passed. She was 18 years old. She passed 3 days after she gave birth to him,” said Speight. “He never knew his mom. I look at we’re in 2025, 51 years ago, you would think that things would have changed. And we have made some progress here in the State of New Jersey, but it’s actually not enough.”

If passed into law, the bill would create a three-year pilot program to provide remote maternal monitoring services to those on Medicaid who are pregnant. 

The legislation says it will include remote patient monitoring, non-stress tests, and tele-ultrasounds.

“Transportation sometimes is a barrier,” said Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-NJ 15^th District), one of the bill’s sponsors, “so this bill helps alleviate that. It still connects people to their doctor, even between those physical appointments.”

“It laid on my heart, and I know there’s a lot of people, especially in the Black and Brown communities, that struggle with this as well,” said Assemblyman Antwan McClellan (R-NJ 1st District), another sponsor of the bill. “You can check out the birth rates and see people are struggling with giving birth to babies in our Black and Brown communities.”

The bill ties into the discussion of improving outcomes in Black maternal health. According to data from the CDC, maternal mortality rates for Black women are more than three times higher than for white women.

Crystal Charley attended Thursday’s Assembly Health Committee meeting to advocate for the bill. A doula herself, she plans to open a birthing center in Trenton soon.

“We need to get this bill passed as soon as possible because for every day it is not passed, we are losing mothers,” said Charley.

The committee voted unanimously to advance the bill.