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The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act, H.R. 20 is scheduled for markup this Wednesday, March 4th, in the Energy & Commerce Committee. This version of the original bill (passed by nearly unanimous bipartisan support in October of 2007,) includes enhancements from U.S. Senator Robert Menendez’s MOTHERS Act with regard to screening, and Congressman Bobby Rush’s call for increased funding for etiological research.
Additionally, the bill maintains Congressman Pitt’s compromise language regarding a longitudinal study on depression as a result of voluntary or involuntary termination of a pregnancy. This is important because women whose babies are stillborn, who miscarry, or elect termination are also subjected to these devastating disorders and have not been represented in previously reported statistics or research.
The next step after successful markup would be a full House vote, followed by similar action in the U.S. Senate.
Thank you to Congressman Bobby L. Rush, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez and Senator Richard Durbin for your unceasing efforts on behalf of America’s mothers!
Below is a list of Congressman who have been selected to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the 111th Congress. We encourage you to contact them to encourage support and passage of this legislation!
Henry A. Waxman, CA, Chair
Joe Barton, TX, Ranking Member
John Dingell, MI, Chair Emeritus
Ralph Hall, TX
Edward Markey, MA
Fred Upton, MI
Rick Boucher, VA
Cliff Stearns, FL
Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ
Nathan Deal, GA
Bart Gordon, TN
Ed Whitfield, KY
Bobby Rush, IL
John Shimkus, IL
Anna Eshoo, CA
John Shadegg, AZ
Bart Stupak, MI
Roy Blunt, MO
Eliot Engel, NY
Steve Buyer, IN
Gene Green, TX
George Radanovich, CA
Diana DeGette, CO
Joseph Pitts, PA
Lois Capps, CA
Mary Bono Mack, CA
Michael Doyle, PA
Greg Walden, OR
Jane Harman, CA
Lee Terry, NE
Janice Schakowsky, IL
Mike Rogers, MI
Charles Gonzalez, TX
Sue Wilkins Myrick, NC
Jay Inslee, WA
John Sullivan, OK
Tammy Baldwin, WI
Tim Murphy, PA
Mike Ross, AR
Michael Burgess, TX
Anthony Weiner, NY
Marsha Blackburn, TN
Jim Matheson, UT
Phil Gingrey, GA
G.K. Butterfield, NC
Steve Scalise, LA
Charlie Melancon, LA
John Barrow, GA
Baron Hill, IN
Doris Matsui, CA
Donna Christensen, VI
Kathy Castor, FL
John Sarbanes, MD
Christopher Murphy, CT
Zachary Space, OH
Jerry McNerney, CA
Betty Sutton, OH
Bruce Braley, IA
Peter Welch, VT
Summary of The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act (S. 324/H.R.20)
The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act, sponsored by Senators Menendez and Representative Rush, will help provide support services to women suffering from postpartum depression and psychosis and will also help educate mothers and their families about these conditions. In addition, it will support research into the causes, diagnoses and treatments for postpartum depression and psychosis.
“Melanie Blocker Stokes Mom’s Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act” or the “Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act”
TITLE I- Research
· Encourages Health and Human Services (HHS) to coordinate and continue research to expand the understanding of the causes of, and find treatments for, postpartum conditions. Also, encourages a National Public Awareness Campaign, to be administered by HHS, to increase awareness and knowledge of postpartum depression and psychosis.
· Includes a Sense of Congress that the Director of the National Institutes of Health may conduct a nationally representative longitudinal study of the relative mental health consequences for women of resolving a pregnancy (intended or unintended) in various ways, including carrying the pregnancy to term and parenting the child, carrying the pregnancy to term and placing the child for adoption, miscarriage, and having an abortion. This study may assess the incidence, timing, magnitude, and duration of the immediate and long-term mental health consequences (positive and negative) of these pregnancy outcomes.
TITLE II- Delivery of Services
· Encourages HHS to make grants available for projects for the establishment, operation, and coordination of systems for the delivery of essential services to individuals with postpartum depression.
o (Entities): Makes grants available to public or nonprofit private entity, which may include a State or local government, a public-private partnership, a recipient of a grant under the Healthy Start program, a public or nonprofit private hospital, community-based organization, hospice, ambulatory care facility, community health center, migrant health center, public housing primary care center, or homeless health center, or any other appropriate public or nonprofit private entity.
o (Activities): Eligible activities include delivering or enhancing outpatient, inpatient and home-based health and support services, including case management and comprehensive treatment services for individuals with or at risk for postpartum conditions. Activities may also include providing education about postpartum conditions to new mothers and their families, including symptoms, methods of coping with the illness, and treatment resources, in order to promote earlier diagnosis and treatment.
TITLE III- General Provisions
· (Funding): Authorizes $3,000,000 for fiscal year 2009; and such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
· (HHS Report): Requires the Secretary of HHS to conduct a study on the benefits of screening for postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis.
· (Limitation): The Secretary may not utilize amounts made available under this Act to carry out activities or programs that are duplicative of activities or programs that are currently being carried out through the Dept of HHS.
Add a Comment6 Comments
This act is not about medication. This act is about screening new mothers for a very serious condition. Hospitals screen every single pregnant woman for gestational diabetes when almost ten times as many women develop a postpartum mood disorder and we don't screen any of them. This act is here only to help women who are suffering from it and to educate the caregivers to better care for them. And although medication is needed for some women suffering from postpartum mood disorders it is not for all. There are many behavioral and cognitive therapies that are widely used in the treatment of postpartum mood disorders in addtion to many alternative therapies such as acupuncture.
October 21, 2009 - 6:11pmThis Comment
The above post (by Anonymous on 10/21/09) is 100% correct. Yes, this is a complex issue but its goal is not to over prescribe drugs that aren't necessary. Screening during pregnancy and postpartum for depression and anxiety is crucial for the mental and physical health of the mother, baby and her entire family. Fear of the MOTHERS ACT stems from misinformation and stigma towards mental illness. Our society and medical providers need to treat the whole person (mental and physical) and screen accordingly. I realize this isn't the case currently. Depression and anxiety are detectable, treatable (with and without drugs) and COMMON parts of this time of a woman's life. Let's stop ignoring a very real and treatable illness and get with the program. I argue that screening for depression during pregnancy is not invading a prospective mother's privacy, it is practicing responsible medicine.
January 5, 2010 - 2:19pmThis Comment
where ar drugs mentioned? I don't see that at all.
September 8, 2009 - 1:18pmThis Comment
If you go to Mothers Act legislative updates, Senator Menendez' office press release incorrectly states that the Mother's Act is broadly popular among the general public which is far from the truth. Over 50 public groups have joined together in the coalition against the Mothers Act.
They include:
AbleChild
The International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology
Alliance for Human Research Protection
International Coalition For Drug Awareness
Law Project for Psychiatric Rights,
and
Mindfreedom International.
Also, common sense dictates that any bill that wasn't passed in 8 years of trying never has been, was or ever will be popular with the general public.
Larry B.
July 20, 2009 - 11:20amThis Comment
Yes, we should move funds in this direction of truly helping women. However, the problem with that is that big pharma and psychiatry have their hands so deep in the “cash cow” pocket of the drug-market and have the public and physicians so convinced that anti-depressants and psychotropic drugs are the solution, that such a bill is not possible until all the smokescreens of the drug pushers are revealed and an honest bill is presented that is based on true medical ethics and a desire to truly help your fellow man.
I am convinced that this is simply the next strategy to hook all of society on “legal” drugs under the banner of “mental health.”
Let me point out one thing: How many billions of tax payer monies have been pumped into “mental health?” Now imagine that was your money and you had invested all that money into your company. What have those billions produced in terms of products — a few examples are 833,000 children and adolescents being prescribed psychotropic drugs every hour for “mental illnesses” that have never scientifically been proven to actually exist as “mental illnesses.” Another is the school shootings that are date coincident to the spike in prescription drugs in schools. Another is the suicides of kids and teenagers on these drugs.
We need to raise our confront of evil before blindly approving a new law into effect that could result in thousands of deaths to mothers and unborn children due to the adverse effects of the drugs that will most likely be administered as a “handling” for PPD. There is a solution to PPD and it is not psychotropic or anti-depressants drugs.
Please research the history of psychiatry and their mental health agenda.
Kindly,
Jules
April 15, 2009 - 5:52amThis Comment
This bill would be useful if there were alternative health solutions even mentioned or allowed. But in fact, it's just another mandated recruiting tool for the shills of Big Pharma... the psychiatric "doctors" and mental "health" centers who will just drug and shock the mothers. Sad.
March 30, 2009 - 2:45pmThis Comment