Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 260) supporting efforts to reduce infant mortality in the United States, as amended. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent…
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 260) supporting efforts to reduce infant mortality in the United States, as amended.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 260, a resolution that supports efforts to reduce infant mortality in the United States.
The United States amazingly enough ranks 29th in the world in the incidence of infant mortality. That is a shocking figure. And while there are a lot of reasons for infant mortality--there's education, there's health care, there are certain other issues that may be existent--health care is the primary one. And as we discuss health care in this Congress, it is hard to submit looking at the United States being 29th in the world in infant mortality, that we don't have a problem somewhere with our health care system.
The extremely high incidence of infant death in the African American community is particularly troubling. In Shelby County, Tennessee, the county which I represent, African American babies die at three times the Nation's infant mortality rate. Prematurity is the number one cause of infant death in the United States, accounting for at least 60 percent of those deaths. Poor women are much more likely to deliver a premature or a low-weight baby as they cannot afford prenatal care or are simply not educated about what is required for women during pregnancy or have access to health clinics or inner-
city doctors, general practitioners, which might be provided if we can pass a health care bill here.
We must work together to lower our country's infant mortality rate, and that starts with lowering our rate of premature births and educating people and providing access to health care.
I was spurred to introduce H. Res. 260 by the devastating rate of infant mortality in Memphis, in Shelby County. And I represent part of Shelby County; the honorable gentlewoman from Brentwood, Tennessee, represents a part of Shelby County, as well, on the Republican side.
In 2007 the 38108 ZIP code in north Memphis, which is a predominantly low-income neighborhood, had an infant mortality rate of 31 deaths per 1,000 live births. That's almost five times the Nation's rate of 6.78 deaths per 1,000 live births; and that ranks the 38108 area worse than the developing nations of Iran, Indonesia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria, and Vietnam in infant mortality.
In my own family, there was an incident of infant mortality. My mother and father's first child, Rosemary, died at 1 month of age in 1945. She was buried with some other family members, not direct family, in 1945. When my father passed in 1992, we buried him at Elmwood Cemetery, a different cemetery than where my sister was buried. But my mother was so touched and always was by the loss of her child that she had her name put on the stone with my father even though her remains were at another cemetery where her name was also.
That taught me something about infant mortality: a mother never forgets the loss of a child, and it affects that mother forever. So it's a problem that affects people of all races and stays with us for all time.
I recently had the opportunity to visit Africa, several countries there, one of which was Liberia, which has a very high rate of infant mortality as well. They have very few doctors there. They don't have good health care. And that has got to be a problem that we need to deal with and we try to with our foreign aid, and I commend President Bush as well as President Obama for extending aid to Africa and so many humanitarian efforts, particularly PEPFAR, but also others.
This month Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, authored a book, published it, entitled ``Half the Sky,'' which is about women in the world and how they have had difficulties rising to the level that they could and that we could empower women and have a tremendous economic advantage, particularly in disadvantaged countries, by giving women the opportunity to participate in the workforce and be educated. Much of the book is dedicated to the enslavement of women but also to maternal mortality and infant mortality as well. I encourage everybody to consider reading the book and taking up this cause.
This September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month; so I am especially proud that we are considering this important resolution today.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting passage of House Resolution 260, which supports efforts to address this important public health problem and a moral problem, and understand racial disparities that persist in infant mortality and try to make America better than 29th in the world.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from Tennessee for her remarks which are so appropriate; and I would like to add that there are efforts in Shelby County, the Blues Project and the ABC Project that the county has, to combat infant mortality and work with pregnant women and new mothers.
If a child is born premature, it costs at least 20 times as much money to keep that child alive for the first year. So if their efforts could be successful to eliminate and reduce infant mortality, and some of that comes through programs such as the county and others have--Blue Cross/Blue Shield has the Blues Project--we could save money in the health system because we won't spend so much keeping premature babies alive at the trauma center. It is an example where if we have preventive care and wellness programs, by investing money, we can save money. And we can save so much with infant mortality.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
