Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – During today’s House Energy and Commerce Committee markup on the Republican reconciliation legislation, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) spoke in support of an amendment to prevent the bill from accelerating the closure of community hospitals and women’s health clinics, which will worsen the maternal mortality crisis in the United States. The amendment introduced by Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) would reverse the GOP cuts to Planned Parenthood and other health care organizations that provide lifesaving women’s health care, despite the existing ban on using taxpayer funds to perform abortion care.

“At a time when maternal health outcomes are worsening across this country, when we’re dead last in maternal mortality among developed nations, this bill doesn’t just turn a blind eye – it pours gasoline on a fire that is already consuming our hospitals, our providers, and our patients,” Congresswoman Trahan said.

CLICK HERE or the image below to view Trahan’s remarks during the Committee’s consideration of reconciliation legislation. A transcript is embedded below.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is currently marking up House Republicans’ reconciliation package that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would cut $715 billion from Medicaid and eliminate health coverage for at least 13.7 million Americans. Medicaid is the largest single-payer of maternity care in the United States, covering an estimated 40% of births. One in five women, and nearly half the country’s children, are covered by Medicaid.

The amendment introduced by Congresswoman Fletcher would strike the provision limiting federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, which would force clinic closures and force more patients to visit hospitals that will be stretched thin by other Medicaid cuts in the bill. During debate over the amendment, Trahan pointed to the recent closing of the maternal birth center in Leominster as well as the devastation caused by the Steward Health Care crisis that closed two hospitals in Massachusetts, including Nashoba Valley Medical Center in her district.

“Maternal health is life or death, and right now, far too many women are dying because our health care system is failing them. In my district, that failure is not theoretical. We don’t have sprawling hospital systems with billion-dollar reserves. We have community hospitals that barely survived COVID and now face impossible decisions,” Congresswoman Trahan continued. “In 2023, the only maternity ward in the western part of my district shut down due to staffing shortages. Last year, two more hospitals closed during the Steward Health Care crisis, including one that served as the primary care provider for thousands of families. These aren’t hypothetical losses. These are real delivery rooms, real emergency rooms – closed for good. Hallways dark. Doors locked. Services gone.”

The amendment was defeated following a vote along party lines, with all Republicans voting against it.

A copy of the amendment can be accessed HERE.

--------------------------------------------

Congresswoman Lori Trahan

Remarks As Delivered

House Energy and Commerce Committee Markup – Hospital Closure & Maternal Health Amendment

May 13, 2025

I move to strike the last word, and I want to thank my colleague from Texas for introducing this important amendment.

Every one of us has heard stories from constituents – mothers, daughters, families – about how hard it is to access the care they need. And yet, this bill crafted behind closed doors by Republicans on this committee will only deepen that crisis.

At a time when maternal health outcomes are worsening across this country, when we’re dead last in maternal mortality among developed nations, this bill doesn’t just turn a blind eye – it pours gasoline on a fire that is already consuming our hospitals, our providers, and our patients.

Cutting Medicaid means cutting off care when women are most vulnerable. Pregnancy is not a luxury. Safe childbirth isn’t a partisan issue. Maternal health is life or death, and right now, far too many women are dying because our health care system is failing them.

In my district, that failure is not theoretical. We don’t have sprawling hospital systems with billion-dollar reserves. We have community hospitals that barely survived COVID and now face impossible decisions.

In 2023, the only maternity ward in the western part of my district shut down due to staffing shortages. Last year, two more hospitals closed during the Steward Health Care crisis, including one that served as the primary care provider for thousands of families. These aren’t hypothetical losses. These are real delivery rooms, real emergency rooms – closed for good. Hallways dark. Doors locked. Services gone.

When a maternity ward shuts down, it sends a chilling message: that a community’s needs aren’t worth the investment. That we’re okay forcing mothers to drive two or three hours just to give birth. That we’ll accept more premature births, more untreated complications, and more babies who never take their first breath.

According to the March of Dimes, 1 in every 25 obstetric units has closed in just the last two years. Over a thousand counties in America are now classified as maternity care deserts, meaning 2.3 million women live in places where there isn’t a single birthing facility – not one obstetrician.

These women are not numbers on a chart. They’re real people. Women who fear bleeding out in labor with the nearest hospital 90 minutes away. Women who skip prenatal care because they can’t afford the gas. Women who bury their babies because help came too late.

And now, Republicans want to gut the very program that keeps these fragile systems afloat just to pay for tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk who loves to talk about falling birth rates but refuses to fund the health care that women need to give birth safely?

It doesn’t stop there. This bill targets Planned Parenthood, blocking their health centers from receiving Medicaid dollars in states where abortion is already banned. I want to be clear – these centers aren’t performing abortions. What they’re doing is delivering cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing, and preventive care in places where there’s no other option.

So let’s call this what it is – not a fight over abortion, but a deliberate campaign to dismantle reproductive health care altogether. And it’s happening while maternal mortality is rising and Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.

Cutting Medicaid, which covers half of all births in this country, will only make that crisis worse. We will lose coverage. We will lose hospitals. And we will lose lives.

If you care about healthy moms and babies, if you care about rural communities surviving, if you care about the basic dignity of giving birth safely in America in 2025,  then you cannot support the bill as written. 

Give us a meaningful Mother’s Day gift this year. Support this amendment, and do not balance your budget on the backs of mothers.

I yield back.

###