Quote:Two pregnant Black women nearly 1,000 miles apart were ready to do what many do every day: welcome new bundles of joy, and just before the start of the holiday season. Instead, the health of both women and their babies was put at risk after hospital staff did not immediately provide the needed care.

One woman was discharged and delivered her baby on the side of an Indiana highway, while the other nearly gave birth in a Texas hospital’s emergency waiting room. Both women survived, but are still reeling from ordeals that have drawn national attention — in part, because they were captured on video and shared on social media.

Each instance highlights the long-standing and rising disparities in health outcomes for Black women, who die at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth, according to a 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

While maternal mortality rates for white, Hispanic and Asian women fell in 2023, according to the CDC report, the rate for Black women barely budged.