Second Call to Action for AB 1612! Free Our Midwives!

Update: The latest word is that AB1612 was dropped from tomorrow's Appropriation Committee agenda--not enough calls. If it is not heard in Appropriations next week, the bill for CNM autonomy dies. We need your calls NOW to the Appropriations Committee Chair Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (916) 319-2080. Keep AB1612 for CNM Autonomy alive!

Greetings CFAM Activists!

Second Call to Action for AB 1612! Free Our Midwives!

AB 1612--the CA bill to remove physician supervision from Certified Nurse Midwives--has moved out of the Assembly Business & Professions Committee thanks to your support. AB 1612 will be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee soon. CFAM supports this bill as it increases Certified Nurse Midwife autonomy and we believe physician supervision of CNMs is a barrier to improving maternal health. Autonomous CNMs improve maternal health.

AB 1612 is being vehemently opposed by the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists and the California Medical Association. These physicians’ groups are demanding amendments to AB 1612 that, in exchange for relinquishing their nominal oversight of CNMs, hospitals should be banned from directly hiring Nurse Midwives. ( this article is from the last time they tried to amend a CNM bill and they are still at it!) Far from “leveling the playing field”, a CNM hospital employment ban would unduly suppress the profession and is a disservice to California families. This disingenuous, self-serving, oppositional lobbying obstructs a family’s right to choose their own maternity care provider, exacerbates the maternal health workforce shortage, and fails to consider the larger economic picture of accountable health care spending.

We are at a time where, on a national level, women’s health and basic maternity care are on the legislative chopping block and being a woman itself is considered a pre-existing condition. US Mother-Baby health suffers from overspending, over-intervention, deplorable mortality rates, and shameful racial birth disparities. CNMs have lower rates of intervention, improved Maternal-Infant outcomes, and reduced costs, yet are being paternalistically barred from the full scope of autonomous practice in just California and five other states. Californians have the opportunity to prioritize women’s health and maternal-infant health with AB 1612.

Physician supervision restricts access to Certified Nurse Midwife assisted birth and women’s healthcare, especially in underserved, rural and marginalized communities. We want California to be a leader in addressing and remedying the devastatingly high rates of neonatal and maternal mortality in communities of color in the USA. At CFAM, we believe that freeing Certified Nurse Midwives improves access to maternity care, will help to improve birth outcomes, and is part of the solution. We oppose any restrictive amendment to ban hospitals from hiring CNMs. This Mother’s Day, we will not allow women’s health to be a casualty of politics; we need to FREE OUR MIDWIVES.

Action is needed TODAY

Please contact the Assembly Appropriation Committee Chair and Vice Chair in support of AB 1612, the phone number for the committee is (916) 319-2081.  If you live in the district of a member of the Appropriation Committee also contact them directly.

Talking points:

YES on AB 1612 without paternalistic amendments

• Families have the right to choose their maternity care providers.

• CNM autonomy will improve mother-baby health, reduce the shortage of birth workers/maternity care providers in CA and reduce costs.

• NO Amendment to Ban on Hospital Employment  Directly of CNM

If your Assemblymember is on the Assembly Appropriations Committee, listed below, please call them and tell them why removal of Physician Supervision from Certified Nurse Midwives is important to you!  Look up your State Representative Here.

• Chair Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (916) 3192080

• Vice Chair Frank Bigelow  (916) 319-2005

• Richard Bloom (916) 319-2050

• Raul Bocanegra (916) 319-2039

• Rob Bonta (916) 319-2018

• William Brough (916) 319-2073

• Ian Calderon (916) 319-2057

• Ed Chau (916) 319-2049

• Susan Eggman (916) 319-2013

• Vince Fong (916) 319-2034

• Laura Friedman (916) 319-2043

• James Gallagher (916) 319-2003

• Eduardo Garcia (916) 319-2056

• Adam Gray (916) 319-2021

• Al Muratsuchi (916) 319-2066

• Jay Obernolte (916) 319-2033

• Eloise Gomez Reyes (916) 319-2047

•  

Legislative Next Steps

If AB 1612 is passed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, it will be then be heard and voted on by the entire Assembly.  If the bill passess the Assembly floor vote, it will go on to be voted on by the State Senate. From there it moves to the Governor’s office to be signed into law.  It is a lot of work to advocate for a bill from start to finish; and this bill will need YOUR support, calls, and presence.  Let’s FREE OUR MIDWIVES! You are CFAM!

In community with all CA families,

Leilani Nguyen

Parent and CFAM Board Member