H.R. 8807 — Maternal Health Pandemic Response Act

This section authorizes appropriations of $190 million for data collection, surveillance, and research on maternal health outcomes during public health emergencies, including $100 million for the Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies program, $30 million for the ERASE MM program, $45 million for the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, and $15 million for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

This section requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the CDC Director and CMS Administrator, to make publicly available on the CDC website data from federal surveillance systems on infectious disease outbreaks, testing, cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and maternal and infant health outcomes among pregnant and postpartum individuals. It mandates monthly updates during public health emergencies and at least one month after, disaggregation by race, ethnicity, gender, primary language, geography, and socioeconomic status, privacy protections including deidentification, consultation with Indian Tribes and Urban Indian organizations, and guidance to states and local health departments within 30 days of a public health emergency declaration.

This section directs the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct public health education campaigns during public health emergencies. The campaigns must deliver accurate, evidence-based information on maternal and infant health risks to pregnant and postpartum individuals, their employers, and health care providers, with particular focus on underserved communities.

This section establishes a task force, convened by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the CDC and HRSA, to develop, publicly post, and update federal recommendations in multiple languages on respectful, responsive, and empowering maternity care during public health emergencies. The recommendations must address 21 enumerated topics, including equitable treatment by race and ethnicity, telehealth access, midwifery licensure and Medicaid reimbursement, doula coverage, mental health screening, intimate partner violence, hospital capacity alternatives such as freestanding birth centers, child care during appointments, bias training, needs of undocumented and uninsured individuals, and infant nutrition, while also identifying implementation barriers, considering existing state programs, and recommending which emergency policies to retain or discontinue.

This section defines terms used throughout the Act, including culturally and linguistically congruent care, maternal mortality as a death during or within one year after pregnancy from pregnancy-related complications, perinatal health worker as a nonclinical provider such as a doula or community health worker, postpartum period as the one-year period after pregnancy, respectful maternity care as care that maintains dignity and enables informed choice, and severe maternal morbidity as a pregnancy-attributed condition causing significant health consequences.