Turning the Tide
Women have historically faced discrimination in access to health care , but a group of female lawmakers and advocates is pushing back .
ILLUSTRATION : DOREEN CHISNELL AND GETTY IMAGES .
Twenty-six years ago in February , Marcia Ranglin-Vassell left Women and Infants Hospital with twin baby boys and an IV needle still stuck in her arm . She was thirty-six , perfectly healthy , working at the hospital ’ s mobile clinic as she earned a bachelor ’ s degree in community health . She is also Black and a Jamaican immigrant . She returned to the hospital to have the needle extracted , and about a week later , she was back again with the worst headache she had ever felt in her life . Ranglin-Vassell was admitted and diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia — dangerously high blood pressure — and a brain aneurysm .
Americans like to believe that they have the greatest health care system in the world , but you couldn ’ t prove it by the health outcomes data . Depending on what factors are considered , the United States ranks far below other industrialized nations : thirty-fifth on the 2021 Bloomberg Global Health Index , and dead last on another 2021 list of wealthy countries compiled by the Commonwealth Fund , a health care policy think tank . Black maternal health is one of the weakest spots in our system . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , about 700 women die each year during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth . Black women are three to four times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women .
For another week , the doctors monitored Ranglin-Vassell ’ s condition , while she bargained with God . “ I am not ready to die ,” she prayed . “ I ’ ve got things to do and boys to raise .”
She recovered , and among the things she went on to do was to beat House Majority Leader John DeSimone in the 2016 primary for House District 5 in Providence . In the years following her harrowing experience , Ranglin-Vassell continued to study how racism infected the health care system — particularly for Black women . And in 2019 , as a representative of the House , she filed a bill to give expectant mothers better access to birth doulas . A doula is a complement to a woman ’ s medical care , acting as an advocate during and after pregnancy . For three years , Representative Ranglin-Vassell lobbied for legislation to require private insurers to cover doula services . In 2021 , the bill passed .
“ Doulas provide physical and emotional support ,” she says . “ And maybe if I had had one , she would have told me to go right back to the hospital instead of sticking my head in the freezer to make the pain go away .”
The doula bill was only one of six related to women ’ s health and equity that Governor Dan McKee signed into law in August . Among the latter are bills banning health insurers from charging women and men different premiums for individual insurance , requiring public schools to offer students feminine hygiene products at no
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