U.S. Rep. Alma Adams will host a webinar on Tuesday, March 21, that examines health issues impacting women.
Why it matters: More than 1,200 women died while giving birth or shortly thereafter in 2021, up from 861 the previous year, the National Center for Health Statistics recently reported.
A disproportionate number of those deaths involved women of color.
“Right now, women face a complicated health care environment,” Adams said in a statement. “Instead of moving in the right direction, maternal mortality rates for American women have increased over the past 20 years.”
Adams said inflation is having an impact on the cost of care and the quality of nutrition.
The webinar, titled Women’s Health: What You Should Know, also will cover topics including breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease and maternal health.
“This Women’s History Month, it’s important to talk about how our health and our history have intertwined,” Alma said in a statement emailed to QCity Metro. “Right now, women face a complicated health care environment,”
Adams said the timing of the event is crucial.
“For the first time in 50 years, American women no longer have the Constitutional guarantee of bodily autonomy,” she said, an apparent reference to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which had guaranteed women a constitutional right to abortion services.
The webinar is scheduled for 11 a.m.