Bill Introduced To Combat Hospitals Turning Away Black Women In Labor
Mercedes Wells, a Black woman in Indiana, went viral earlier this month after releasing a video showing herself being sent home from a hospital despite being in active labor. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced a bill in Congress that aims to prevent hospitals from turning away women while they’re in labor.
According to NBC News, the Women Expansion for Learning and Labor Safety Act, or WELLS Act, would require hospitals to implement a “Safe Discharge Labor Plan before discharging a patient who presents with signs or symptoms of labor.” The Safe Discharge Labor Plan would see hospitals providing clinical justification for the discharge, assessing travel distance and time before approving the discharge, and receiving a written understanding from the patient. The WELLS Act would also require health care professionals to undergo racial bias training.
“My bill aims to address systematic issues around maternal care, racial disparities, and hospital accountability,” Kelly said. “It’s clear that what happened to Mercedes isn’t an isolated incident, nor is it the first time a Black woman’s pain has been ignored.”
“Until all women are heard and listened to in our hospitals and health centers, I’ll be their voice in Congress fighting for change,” Kelly added.
On Nov. 16, Mercedes Wells’ husband rushed her to Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital when her contractions were 10 minutes apart. After six hours, Wells only received a checkup from a nurse before being discharged from the hospital. She never saw a doctor and wound up giving birth to her fourth child in the backseat of her car, only 8 minutes after leaving the hospital.
“It was really a horrific situation to be treated like a dog, or not even like a dog, like less than,” Wells told NBC News. “It says that they don’t care at all for Black women in health, and it’s hurtful. We thought that, you know, things have changed at this point in our country, and I don’t see a change.”
Franciscan Health President and CEO Raymond Grady told NBC News that the nurse and doctor who declined to provide Mercedes Wells proper care no longer work for the hospital. Grady also issued a formal apology to the Wells family. “We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns,” CEO Raymond Grady said in the statement. “We must fix what failed in our hospital so that no one experiences what happened to Mercedes Wells.”
Sadly, Mercedes Wells’ experience isn’t abnormal for Black women. Black women disproportionately represent maternal mortality rates and are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. These rates have only skyrocketed in states like Texas and Georgia, where stringent abortion bans have led to unnecessary deaths of Black women, like in the case of Amber Thurman.
Black people already have a heightened distrust of medical professionals due to historical mistreatment and racial bias in health care. The experiences of Mercedes Wells do little to dispel the notion that the American health care system is designed to work against Black people. Hopefully, this bill passes, so no more women will have to endure what Mercedes Wells went through.
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White Women In Medicine Have Always Neglected Pregnant Black Women
