JACKSON, Miss.—Paheadra Robinson shed tears in the Mississippi Capitol rotunda Tuesday afternoon when she learned that the Mississippi House had finally sent a bill to the governor’s desk that will give new mothers Medicaid for up to 12 months after giving birth—well beyond the state’s current 60-day limit on postpartum coverage.
Robinson, who is senior policy consultant for the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, told the Mississippi Free Press that the news moved her “because Black women are dying to give birth to children.” Mississippi has one of the nation’s higher maternal mortality rates, with Black women dying from pregnancy-related deaths at three times the rate of white women.
“Every medical profession that we spoke with, everybody who has worked with moms through the birthing process, have supported this issue and we just really needed, we really needed this as a state to prove that we really cared about children from birth, all the way through life—that if we’re really pro-life, then show it,” she said.
The Mississippi House passed Senate Bill 2212, which will grant 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage, by a 92-7 vote. Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton voted against it. Photo courtesy Working Together Mississippi
Since 2020, the federal government has required all states to give women access to postpartum Medicaid coverage for 12 months under COVID-19 emergency orders, but with those measures ending in May, the state was set to revert back to only allowing coverage for two months.
In both 2021 and 2022, the Mississippi Senate approved and sent legislation to extend postpartum Medicaid for 12 months to the lower chamber, but Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn repeatedly killed it without allowing a vote on the House floor.
Last year, Gunn said he wanted “to look for ways to keep people off (Medicaid), not put them on.” The Senate again sent this year’s version, Senate Bill 2212, to the House on Feb. 7. As in past years, its sponsor is Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven. Gunn voted against it.
‘Healthy Moms Equal Healthy Babies’
In late February, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves endorsed the