By Emmanuel Bobby
Wes Moore and Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined together Thursday to spotlight the growing national focus on maternal health, emphasizing the urgent need for stronger support systems for mothers before, during, and after childbirth.
Despite representing opposing political parties and holding different views on abortion rights, the two governors found common ground on the importance of improving health outcomes for mothers and infants, particularly in underserved communities where maternal mortality and postpartum complications remain major concerns.
Sanders, a Republican and mother of three, said maternal health became one of her top priorities after taking office in Arkansas, a state that has consistently struggled with some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
“If we can see these women and help them and support them from the very beginning of their pregnancy all the way through, then we can help address some of these problems and we can change maternal health,” Sanders said during a joint interview with Moore and philanthropist Olivia Walton.
Sanders explained that after becoming governor, she quickly realized the issue crossed political, ideological, and geographic lines.
She said she formed a statewide strategic working group to examine the root causes behind poor maternal health outcomes and develop long-term solutions aimed at reducing preventable deaths and complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.
The governor said she was surprised by the broad level of bipartisan support the initiative received.
“People that I know actively campaigned against me were some of the most helpful people in developing our strategic plan on how we were going to address this problem in Arkansas,” Sanders said.
“It is something that breaks down a lot of walls,” she added. “Everybody knows a mom. Everybody has a mom.”
The working group eventually helped shape several maternal health initiatives, including the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act, as well as new postpartum outreach programs designed to support women during the critical weeks following childbirth.
Among the programs Sanders highlighted was the Proactive Postpartum Call Center operated through the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The center contacts new mothers during the first six weeks after delivery to monitor both physical and mental health conditions, answer medical questions, and help identify warning signs that may otherwise go untreated.
Supporters of the initiative say postpartum outreach is especially important because many pregnancy-related complications and maternal deaths occur after mothers leave the hospital.
Walton, founder of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, stressed that postpartum care has historically been neglected in the American healthcare system despite evidence showing it is one of the most dangerous periods for mothers.
“We’ve got to start doing postpartum care because we don’t really do it in America,” Walton said.
She argued that maternal care should be viewed as a long-term continuum rather than ending immediately after childbirth.
“In the postpartum space, it’s a continuum,” Walton explained. “And I firmly believe this, because two-thirds of maternal mortality happens after the baby is born, after mom has left the hospital.”
Walton noted that many women never return for routine follow-up visits after giving birth, particularly those relying on Medicaid or living in lower-income communities.
“Forty percent of moms don’t go back for any checkup,” she said.
“Sixty percent of Medicaid moms don’t go back for any checkup,” Walton added.
Health advocates say that lack of follow-up care can allow serious conditions such as postpartum depression, infection, hypertension, bleeding complications, and cardiovascular problems to go undetected until they become life-threatening.
Walton described home nurse visits during the first two weeks after childbirth as the “gold standard” for postpartum care, though she acknowledged that such services remain limited and unevenly available across the country.
“There are pockets of that happening around the country,” she said. “Gov. Sanders has an incredible solution in Arkansas with the postpartum call center.”
Meanwhile, Moore discussed Maryland’s efforts to tackle maternal health disparities through economic support initiatives aimed at helping struggling families.
The Maryland governor highlighted a state initiative known as the Bridge Program, which provides direct financial assistance to low-income mothers during pregnancy and after childbirth.
“It is something that’s going to focus on providing cash assistance to mothers who are both prenatal and then postnatal mothers,” Moore said.
The program is expected to initially assist 150 families living in areas of Maryland where concentrated poverty has remained a persistent challenge for generations.
Moore said the initiative recognizes that maternal health and economic stability are deeply connected.
“To be able to provide cash assistance for them to be able to have additional measurements of support,” he said, explaining that many families face overwhelming financial stress during pregnancy and early parenthood.
The governor also argued that addressing maternal health can help reduce long-term childhood poverty and improve outcomes for future generations.
“And so we know that if you want to better help children and address the issue of childhood poverty, it means support their families and support their moms,” Moore said. “And so maternal health becomes a huge part of all this.”
The bipartisan discussion also touched on abortion policy and how each governor’s political philosophy influences their broader approach to maternal healthcare.
Sanders reaffirmed her strong opposition to abortion while emphasizing that supporting mothers and children after birth is equally important.
“I’m unapologetically pro-life,” Sanders said. “I think that we have to protect life at every stage, at every level.”
She described Arkansas as one of the most anti-abortion states in the country and said she intends to continue advancing those policies.
But Sanders also argued that being “pro-life” should involve broader investments in maternal and family support systems.
“So often we stop the conversation after the baby is born,” she said. “I think that it can’t just be if we’re pro-life. We have to be whole-life.”
Moore agreed with Sanders on the importance of strengthening services such as adoption support and foster care programs, but said he disagreed with the reversal of the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade.
“I do respectfully disagree on the Roe v. Wade decision,” Moore said.
The Maryland governor argued that reproductive healthcare decisions should remain in the hands of women and their doctors.
“I think this was something that was law of the land literally for decades that was about how are we making sure that women have a choice, and how are we making sure that women are the ones who are the driving deciders as to what happens with their health care,” Moore said.
He also pointed to Maryland voters’ decision last year to enshrine abortion rights protections into the state constitution as evidence of public support for reproductive choice.
Despite their policy disagreements, both governors emphasized that improving maternal healthcare outcomes should remain a national priority capable of uniting lawmakers across ideological divides.
Health experts say the issue has become increasingly urgent as the United States continues to report higher maternal mortality rates than many other developed nations, with Black women and low-income mothers disproportionately affected by pregnancy-related complications and inadequate postpartum care.
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