Brooklyn’s Democratic Party boss and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn shared her struggles with a previous pregnancy that inspired her to pass maternal health legislation.
was forced to carry to term a dead fetus. She couldn’t get the fetus removed because it was considered an abortion. Mickie’s Law ensures mothers who encounter fetal deaths get the treatment they need to remove a dead fetus, especially in the event of an emergency. Even in New York State, expecting mothers aren’t always guaranteed timely access to procedures that would remove a baby that has died.
Bichotte Hermelyn recounted that she was experiencing high preterm labor where her baby was “bulging out” when “two white female doctors” told her that her bed was needed and that staff could either terminate the baby or she could leave. “There was no compassion, no need to retain me in the hospital to monitor me,” said Bichotte Hermelyn. She said she was surrounded by two other Black women who were expecting and also in distress. Eventually, she went to a local safety net hospital.
Speaker Adams said that the city is finally taking steps to acknowledge the horrifying lived experiences that have endangered too many lives with concrete policy actions. She said that maternal health is a “social justice issue” that is a matter of life or death for many women and birthing people in the city and country.