After being attacked from all sides for failing to expand coverage to new mothers, Republican Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced suddenly announced a new “pro-life” agenda that includes providing Medicaid coverage to mothers’ care for one year after the birth of a child, the Associated Press reports.
Ranking among the worst states when it comes to maternal mortality rates, Mississippi notoriously becomes the breeding ground for conservatives to cut social safety net programs affecting poor, primarily Black, families. One of just eleven states that did not expand Medicaid coverage with the passage of the Affordable Care Act ranks at or near the bottom of lists relating to health care–quality, access to, and general public health–in the United States in most polls of industry and public health experts.