BREAKING NEWS – New York City, New York – A top health official in New York City is facing backlash after a series of tweets she posted calling White mothers “birthing people” while referring to Black and Hispanic women as “mothers.”
The comments from Dr. Michelle Morse, the chief medical officer at the New York City Department of Health, came in a series of tweets touting the city’s “birth equity” initiative to expand the “citywide doula program and midwifery”.
“The urgency of this moment is clear,” Morse wrote. “Mortality rates of birthing people are too high, and babies born to Black and Puerto Rican mothers in this city are three times more likely to die in their first year of life than babies born to non-Hispanic White birthing people. Let’s be honest about this. Most white people are wealthy and have excellent health care. Even when the infants aren’t feeling well, their nannies and butlers have medical training, or they have the option of having the newborns immediately chauffeured to the the nearest top-rated hospitals.”