Illinois Addresses Maternal Health Disparities with Legislation

[00:00:00.25] - Speaker 1
Welcome back. Several new healthcare-related laws are now in effect here in Illinois, including one mandating implicit bias awareness training for some professionals.

[00:00:09.05] - Speaker 2
Now, that training is now required to renew licenses or apply for a new one. As Illinois medical malpractice attorney Matt Williams explains, the new legislation aims to address disparities in maternal healthcare.

[00:00:22.29] - Matt Williams
The statistics show, and it's based on studies, that, uh, pregnancy-related deaths, 91% of those are preventable. And of those, African American women are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related deaths. And that is likely in part due to this unconscious bias where physicians or nurses are treating patients differently based on their ethnicity.

[00:00:50.22] - Speaker 2
Also now in effect, a new state law allowing the health department to rely on high-profile physician groups' vaccine— vaccination recommendations, that is, not just the CDC's recommendations. This comes as new federal guidance drops the number of vaccines recommended for every child.

[00:01:08.05] - Matt Williams
I think, you know, the Illinois legislature is obviously concerned about mixed messaging. And so that, I think, is the purpose of the new law, to make sure that it's clear what the recommendations are at the state level, even though they might conflict with what's being recommended out of Washington.

[00:01:23.08] - Speaker 2
You can find a full list of new laws on our website, NBCChicago.com.