Members of the Charles County NAACP and National Council of Negro Women held a meeting with the region’s delegates Tuesday evening to discuss the now-concluded 2024 Maryland General Assembly session.
Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles) shared the progress made on maternal health this past session, as he sponsored the 2024 Maternal Health Bill.
Ellis told attendees that African Americans are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
“It’s unacceptable,” Ellis said. “We really want to fix that problem.”
Maryland was given a score of “F” in maternal health care four years ago, Ellis explained. Now, the state is rated a “D.”
“It doesn’t sound too good, but we’re moving upwards,” Ellis said.
Del. Debra Davis (D-Charles) said, “It’s so important to realize we’re working really hard to be a team.”
Other members of the delegation agreed with her, with Del. C. T. Wilson (D-Charles) saying that when he had a staffing shortage this past session, members of the Southern Maryland delegation stepped up and helped him with various bills.
“I’m so grateful for our team,” Wilson said.
Wilson discussed the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, saying that the governor wanted businesses to receive relief funds in the wake of the collapse. Wilson said that instead he advocated for the workers to get the relief funds directly so as to not just increase business income.
The Maryland Online Data Privacy Act was a bill Wilson said he was happy to see make it to the governor’s desk, adding that “it’s almost haunting” the amount of data large companies collect from everyone.
“They have to let you know that they’re selling your data. You have to opt in,” Wilson said, describing what the act would do.
If Gov. Wes Moore (D) approves the act, Maryland would be one of the first states in the nation to have this degree of protection.
Wilson also briefly mentioned the extension of the Clean Indoor Air Act to vaping, which would now require signage to be posted to say “no smoking or vaping” in places already under the 2007 Clean Indoor Air Act.
Del. Edith J. Patterson (D-Charles) touched on the Freedom to Read Act, which would require establishing a state policy that local school systems operate their school library media programs consistent with certain standards and give new protections to certain school library media program personnel.
Patterson said that the bill, which did ultimately pass and is awaiting the governor’s signature, met opposition throughout the legislative process, specifically at its second and third readings.
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