Press Releases

A Children's Defense Fund® analysis of recently released birth and death statistics from 2001 finds that core federal maternal and infant health goals are not being achieved. The goals, part of Healthy People 2000, were set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the first Bush Administration in 1990. Among five key measures for which reliable data exist, only the target for lowering mortality for all infants has been reached. Goals for maternal mortality, early prenatal care, low birthweight, and very low birth weight are not being met.

The targets for addressing widespread racial disparities in those categories also fall short of their objective. The gap between Black and White infant death rates, for example, still remains wide. Black infants are more than twice as likely to die in their first year of life as are White infants, a ratio that has not improved since 1990.

"Ensuring infant and maternal health is the very first step in giving every child a healthy start in life," said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund. "Back in 1990, the government set 10-year goals to make sure the nation was making progress towards proper care for women and babies. Eleven years later, we were practically where we were from the start. Black, Native American, and Latino babies continue to have the odds stacked against them from birth. How can a nation as wealthy as ours be failing our babies so miserably?"

"I urge the present Bush Administration and Congress to preserve and expand health insurance to all pregnant women and babies. The President's proposals to dismantle federal standards for Medicaid and CHIP, and his unwillingness to broaden the coverage these programs can offer actually make the situation worse. The White House even opposes proposals in the pending Medicare prescription drug bill, which could help hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant children and pregnant women get health insurance. These misguided policies will take us in the same direction we have been going that leave millions of children behind at the very beginning of their lives."

# # #

Data on infant and maternal health:

• Selected Maternal and Infant Health Indicators, 2001
  (Adobe PDF : 1 page : 68 KB)
• Selected Maternal and Infant Health Indicators, by Race and Hispanic Origin of Mother, 2001
  (Adobe PDF : 1 page : 64 KB)

# # #

The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. We have never taken government funds.