Louisiana Republican called out for statement 'rooted in white supremacy'

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was lectured by a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for his statements dismissing maternal death by African American women.

“About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear,” Cassidy told Politico.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) blasted Cassidy in a thread posted to Twitter.

"A third of Louisiana's population is Black. The Senator's statement is rooted in white supremacy," she wrote.

"I’ll paraphrase the Senator’s statement. Sen. Cassidy is saying that his state’s maternal death rate wouldn’t be so high if you didn’t count Black women. He suggests that 'correcting' the data means eliminating Black maternal health outcomes entirely," she explained.

"Due to structural inequities built into our health care system. Black mothers are 3 times as likely to die due to complications from pregnancy than white mothers. In Louisiana, that number jumps to 4," she coninued.

"GOP elected officials like Sen. Cassidy have no desire to dismantle these inequities — it’s easier for them to ignore them. Because dismantling health inequities means acknowledging systemic racism, and it’s against his best interests to do that," she wrote. "It’s no surprise that a member of the party that scores political points by spewing conspiratorial 'great replacement' rhetoric and fomenting moral panics about so-called critical race theory in schools is perfectly comfortable ignoring the plight of Black American mothers."

"A truly 'pro-life' Senator should have a vested interest in ending maternal health disparities. Instead, Sen. Cassidy seems content to let Black mothers die as a result of pregnancies that his party would like to force them to carry," she argued. "To call this hypocrisy unacceptable would be a gross understatement. I am saddened, disgusted, and appalled that a *sitting U.S. Senator* in the year 2022 can make this statement so nonchalantly."

"Black lives matter. Black mothers matter. And I will not stop fighting until ALL of my colleagues — House and Senate, Democratic and Republican — acknowledge that," she concluded.