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To promote Safe Sleep Awareness Month, we held a contest among our Healthy Start families to send us photos of their babies sleeping safely (alone, on their backs and in a crib). These three winners were chosen at random to receive $50 gift cards to Walmart.

The Kansas Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee passed two bills this week that potentially weaken the existing safety net of vaccine requirements, putting us at risk for preventable disease. This marks the third straight session in which the Senate has considered anti-vaccination legislation. As we approach the last days for consideration of these measures, it is important that you contact your Senator and let him/her know that you oppose this legislation and express your concern for the impact on the health of Kansans.

If you reside in Johnson County, it is imperative that you contact your Kansas State Senator via email or phone and record your opposition. Both bills promote policies soundly rejected by Kansans in Nurture KC’s 2022 scientific public opinion poll: Kansas Vaccine Poll.
Find my legislator: https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/

Read more about both bills and access talking points to send to your legislator at Action Alert – Nurture KC 3.24.23.

Big news! Nurture KC is proud to be an inaugural Impact 100 organization by the United Way of Greater Kansas City. United Way launched Impact 100 to provide funding to 100 organizations addressing vital health and human service needs in our community. Nurture KC will use the funding to continue to improve maternal and infant health in Kansas City.

“This grant will help the moms and babies in our Healthy Start program. It will go right to the heart of where it’s needed most,” says Tracy Russell, Executive Director, Nurture KC. “We are honored to be named to United Way’s Impact 100.”

From the United Way: Every Impact 100 organization maintains a high bar of organizational accountability and effectiveness in terms of finances, governance and impact in the community. Our rubric included a variety of factors, and ultimately led to this initial Impact 100 being very diverse – in terms of geographic regions served, organizations led by people of color, focus areas and more. This year’s impact 100 organizations cover the following domains: child welfare, healthcare access, food security, housing and financial stability, positive youth development and early childhood development. 

To learn more, go to unitedwaygkc.org/impact-100.

An Action Alert from Tracy Russell, Executive Director of Nurture KC

During my three and a half years at Nurture KC, I have preached the importance of politics and policy as a key driver of maternal and infant health, necessitating our advocacy. Today, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, this reality is driven home in the most painful of ways, with women losing bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom in an instant after 50 years of settled law.

As an organization that aids pregnant women in navigating the system and circumstances to ensure healthy births, you might question our involvement in the right to choose abortion. It is precisely because of what we see daily – and the connection between reproductive freedom and maternal and infant health – that drives our belief that a great injustice has been done to women and families. The mothers we serve live in the ZIP codes of Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS with the highest rates of infant mortality in the metro. They are often the poorest of the poor, facing barriers in daily living that most of us take for granted. While this is a universal issue, the brunt of this decision will be borne by those least-advantaged, particularly Black families. Shannon Williams, Healthy Start Program Director, was interviewed by KSHB-41 News on this topic, which can be viewed here.

Kansas will be the first state to vote on the question of maintaining reproductive freedom and protecting women’s health. On August 2, there is a ballot initiative that would place the authority to restrict/ban abortion with the legislature, reversing a Kansas Supreme Court decision that reinforced the constitutional right to privacy and abortion two years ago. A “no” vote on August 2 protects a woman’s right to choose while a “yes” vote allows what is anticipated to be a ban through legislative action next session. While many of us resent the fact that women’s health is a political issue, please vote! A woman’s life may depend on it.

Missouri already ranks a dismal 44th nationally in maternal mortality, with a rate for Black mothers three times that of White mothers. Missouri is also one of the states that has a “trigger” law that essentially banned abortion as soon as the Supreme Court decision was released. This is against the backdrop of a legislative session in which lawmakers defeated an effort to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to one year, a policy that would truly value the lives of Missouri mothers and their children.

Register for our Annual Meeting at nurturekc.org/2022-annual-meeting. Session topics include tenants’ rights, extending postpartum Medicaid coverage, our Nurturing Safe Sleep hospital certification project and reproductive healthcare. Don’t miss it!

We must protect our communities against preventable diseases, as well as from the spread of disease that may present in our communities. The Kansas Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee passed two bills this week that would put all of us at risk. We need your help to take action and stop these bills from passing on the Senate floor. These bills are getting further and the consequences to public health would be dire. We need to send a strong message that this is not what is best for Kansans, and this is also not what Kansans want to see happen. (View recent vaccine polling data from Kansas.)

How can you help?
1) Click “read more” below to learn about these two bills.
2) Reach out to your Senator via email or phone to let them know you oppose this legislation, and your concerns for how it would negatively impact the health of Kansans. (Find my legislator: https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/)

Nurture KC is 1 of 29 health-focused organizations urging Kansas legislators to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for eligible mothers, which would save lives and money. Check out this article in the Kansas Reflector to learn more!