When the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act (H.R.959) was first introduced in 2021, it represented the most significant legislative effort at the time to address the United States’ maternal mortality crisis. It was the first time a comprehensive ‘omnibus’ approach (a single piece of legislation requiring a single vote to pass containing several individual bills) was taken for maternal health. It signaled that the crisis, particularly for Black and Indigenous populations, was finally being recognized as an issue.
Unfortunately, by the end of the 117th Congress, H.R.959 did not receive a vote and stalled. The same happened to its successor, H.R.3305, with the 118th Congress. On March 18, however, the act was reintroduced as H.R.7973 and was officially back on the table.
Because of the comprehensive nature of the Momnibus Act, which contains fourteen individual titles, this policy review is divided into two parts. This first article contextualizes the act and analyzes Titles I through VII. The second one will cover Titles VIII through XIV.
Momnibus’ Evolution
The journey of the Momnibus is one of persistence and resolution. What began as a 12-bill package in 2021 grew into a 13-bill act in 2023 and has now arrived in 2026 bigger than ever, with 14 titles.
While the first two bills died in the 117th and 118th, the movement never stopped. Between 2023 and 2025, the Black Maternal Health Caucus secured over $200 million in maternal health-related funding to work toward fulfilling pieces of the Momnibus’ agenda. While this initial funding has laid the foundation for Momnibus programs, the 2026 reintroduction aims to fully codify them into law.
The evolution of the Momnibus reflects the bill’s broad scope. The constant new reintroductions adapt to include an increasingly dense agenda, with provisions addressing social determinants, community-based organizations, veterans, the maternal health workforce, data collection, mental health, incarcerated individuals, telehealth, climate change, and maternal vaccination, demonstrating the legislation’s attempt to approach maternal mortality from multiple angles.
Disclaimer: Many titles are redundant because they overlap in the areas they seek to combat the maternal health crisis.
Title I: Social Determinants for Moms
Today, 34.6% of counties in the U.S. are maternity-care deserts, and around 2.4 million women of reproductive age live in those counties. The first title of the Momnibus tackles one of the most challenging issues in maternal health care: the fact that a mothers’ healthy pregnancy does not depend only on medical care. Instead, the focus is on the social determinants of maternal health (pending housing situation, public transportation, nutrition, childcare, and financial stability).
Even the best medical treatment is useless for a mother with poor access to healthcare. Unstable housing, unavailability of transport, lack of food, and absence of babysitters are a few of the barriers a pregnant woman may face, preventing her from receiving adequate prenatal and postnatal services.
By sponsoring different programs that solve these issues, the authors of the Momnibus try to expand the view on maternal mortality beyond being just a healthcare economic issue. Thus, it has come to the understanding that maternal health depends on many more factors existing outside the healthcare system.
This is particularly important when considering racial disparities in maternal mortality. The CDC’s 2024 data show that Black women experienced a maternal mortality rate more than three times that of White women, reinforcing the argument that reducing disparities requires attention to the broader conditions affecting communities as well as the healthcare they receive. Thus, this title can help mitigate these structural differences in maternal healthcare.
Title II: Extending WIC for New Moms
Title II focuses on extending nutritional support for mothers and children through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC. The Momnibus would extend eligibility for this program to 24 months postpartum, demonstrating that maternal health needs do not automatically disappear when a person gives birth.
The postpartum period can involve significant physical recovery and new economic pressures, making continued access to nutritional resources an important part of supporting mothers and infants. In 2025, WIC served about 6.9M people per month, including an estimated 41% of all U.S. infants. By extending access to WIC, the legislation seeks to provide families with additional support during a period when both mothers and children can remain vulnerable.
This provision complements Title I’s broader focus on social determinants of health. Rather than viewing nutrition as an isolated issue, the Momnibus treats access to adequate food as part of a larger network of conditions that influence maternal and infant health.
Title III: Honoring Kira Johnson
Title III, known as the Honoring Kira Johnson provision, focuses on community-based organizations and efforts to improve the quality of maternal care. The title honors Kira Johnson, who died after internal hemorrhage following a routine C-section after 10 hours of unaddressed medical distress.
The provision would support community-based organizations that provide programs and resources for Black pregnant and postpartum individuals as well as people in underserved communities. These organizations can be particularly important as CDC data estimates that over 80% of maternal deaths are medically preventable.
The title also reflects the Momnibus’ emphasis on improving both the quality and experience of maternal healthcare. The original bill included provisions establishing grants to fund and evaluate mandatory, evidence-based anti-racism and implicit bias training for all healthcare employees operating in maternity care settings.
While the previous bills didn’t succeed, Federal appropriations modeled on Title III have already funneled $36 million to local CBOs nationwide.
Title IV: Maternal Health for Veterans
Title IV addresses the health needs of veterans by improving care coordination and reducing mortality among pregnant and postpartum veterans.
This has become an increasingly important issue as the population of pregnant veterans has grown rapidly. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, pregnancies among veterans using VA services increased by more than 80% from 2014 to 2022. Meanwhile, around half of the roughly 600,000 women receiving VA healthcare were also of childbearing age by 2023.
The problem is that veterans receive maternity care from doctors outside of providers within a community, making care fragmented and decentralized. A mother could therefore have one system handling her pregnancy, while another could handle other parts of her health. The Momnibus attempts to close those gaps while expanding research into maternal deaths and pregnancy complications, streamlining maternity-care coordination.
The federal government has already started building the infrastructure for this approach. In 2023, the VA expanded its Maternity Care Coordinator program from 8 weeks after birth to a full year postpartum. Furthermore, every VA facility offers maternity care coordination to help veterans navigate healthcare with community resources.
Title IV allows maternal care to build on these existing systems and create actual coordination to streamline the medical process nationwide, reinforcing the idea that access to healthcare is meaningless if patients struggle to navigate the healthcare environment.
Title V: Perinatal Workforce
Access presents another problem when there are not enough healthcare workers available. Title V attempts to address this by investing in diversifying maternal and perinatal workforces, including nurses, midwives, physicians, and other professionals involved in maternal care.
The shortage is significant. According to the March of Dimes’ 2026 maternity care report, 35.9% of U.S. counties have no practicing obstetric clinician at all, while more than one in ten counties have only one. In rural America, 57.9% of rural counties lack an obstetric clinician, compared with 19.4% of urban counties.
These shortages directly translate into distance. The broader 2026 March of Dimes report found that one in three U.S. counties remains a maternity-care desert and that 5.8 million women live in counties without full access to maternity care. Between 2024 and early 2026, at least 96 hospital labor-and-delivery units also closed across 35 states. In nearly 60% of the affected counties, teh facility that closed had been the community’s only birthing unit.
Momnibus responds by funding programs intended to train and retain more maternal-health professionals, particularly in underserved communities. Diversifying that workforce with the goal of creating a provider base that better reflects the needs of those receiving care.
Title VI: Data to Save Moms
Knowing that a mother died isn’t enough to prevent the next death. Doctors and policymakers should instead look to finding out what is wrong, especially when estimates show that more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
This is where Maternal Mortality Review Committees, or MMRCs, come in. Rather than recording a cause of death, these committees investigate the circumstances surrounding each case to determine what contributed to the death, whether it was preventable, and what could stop that same death from happening again.
Two mothers may die from the same complication but get there for completely different reasons. Omnibus seeks to expand research by improving maternal-health data collection, particularly for tribal and minority populations that have been underrepresented in data.
The federal government already supports maternal mortality review efforts across most of the country, once again giving legislation a system to build upon.
Title VII: Moms Matter
The dangers associated with pregnancy do not just disappear after delivery. For many mothers, the most serious risks emerge during the months that follow.
An extreme but undertalked part of that risk is mental health. Conditions such as postpartum depression, anxiety, and substance-use disorders can develop during pregnancy or after childbirth. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, about one in eight women experience postpartum depression. Yet maternal mental health is more than just an emotional issue. Reviews of maternal deaths found that maternal health conditions are a leading cause of pregnancy-related death, including deaths involving suicide and substance use.
Moms Matter closes this gap by funding community-based organizations that provide mental health and substance-use treatment for mothers, particularly in underserved communities. The programs are designed to connect mental-health support more directly, instead of expecting mothers to find specialized treatment themselves.
This is especially important after childbirth, when attention can shift from the mother’s health to the newborn. A successful delivery may mark the end of a pregnancy, but it does not mark the end of the health risks that come with it. Momnibus seeks to treat motherhood similarly.
A Systemic Approach to Maternal Mortality
Together, Titles I through VII reveal the essential idea behind the Momnibus Act: the problem of maternal mortality is not an isolated one, and therefore it cannot be solved with a single policy.
The issues being addressed under Momnibus are strongly interrelated and compound one another. A mother who has trouble with housing may also have problems with accessing healthcare, while a lack of transportation options may prevent her from attending prenatal visits or reaching the hospital in a time of need.
As such, Momnibus represents a different approach to legislation from those that focus on a single point of the mortality problem. The argument made by the proponents of the Momnibus Act is that maternal mortality is caused by a complex web of problems related to healthcare, economic situation, social conditions, and public policy. To tackle the issue of maternal mortality, it is not enough to focus on only one out of all of the factors listed above.
The reintroduction of the Momnibus brings maternal health strategy back into the national legislative conversation. An increasingly relevant idea as the United States continues to face substantial maternal health disparities.
The continued development of H.R. 959 demonstrates the persistence of maternal health advocates. Even though comprehensive Momnibus proposals have not yet become law, lawmakers and advocates, along with private organizations, have continued pursuing individual elements of the agenda through federal funding and other legislative efforts.
For now, the Momnibus is back on the table. The question is no longer whether Congress has a proposal for addressing the maternal mortality crisis, but whether Congress will finally act on it.
