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Mercedes Wells, a Black woman in Indiana, went viral earlier this month after releasing a video showing herself being sent home from a hospital despite being in active labor. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced a bill in Congress that aims to prevent hospitals from turning away women while they’re in labor. According to NBC News, the Women Expansion for Learning and Labor Safety Act, or WELLS Act, would require hospitals to implement a “Safe Discharge Labor Plan before discharging a patient who presents with signs or symptoms of labor.” The Safe Discharge Labor Plan would see hospitals providing clinical justification for the discharge, assessing travel distance and time before approving the discharge, and receiving a written understanding from the patient. The WELLS Act would also require health care professionals to undergo racial bias training. “My bill aims to address systematic issues around maternal care, racial disparities, and hospital accountability,” Kelly said. “It’s clear that what happened to Mercedes isn’t an isolated incident, nor is it the first time a Black woman’s pain has been ignored.” “Until all women are heard and listened to in our hospitals and health centers, I’ll be their voice in Congress fighting for change,” Kelly added. On Nov. 16, Mercedes Wells’ husband rushed her to Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital when her contractions were 10 minutes apart. After six hours, Wells only received a checkup from a nurse before being discharged from the hospital. She never saw a doctor and wound up giving birth to her fourth child in the backseat of her car, only 8 minutes after leaving the hospital. “It was really a horrific situation to be treated like a dog, or not even like a dog, like less than,” Wells told NBC News. “It says that they don’t care at all for Black women in health, and it’s hurtful. We thought that, you know, things have changed at this point in our country, and I don’t see a change.” Franciscan Health President and CEO Raymond Grady told NBC News that the nurse and doctor who declined to provide Mercedes Wells proper care no longer work for the hospital. Grady also issued a formal apology to the Wells family. “We failed to listen to Mrs. Wells’ concerns,” CEO Raymond Grady said in the statement. “We must fix what failed in our hospital so that no one experiences what happened to Mercedes Wells.” Sadly, Mercedes Wells’ experience isn’t abnormal for Black women. Black women disproportionately represent maternal mortality rates and are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. These rates have only skyrocketed in states like Texas and Georgia, where stringent abortion bans have led to unnecessary deaths of Black women, like in the case of Amber Thurman. Black people already have a heightened distrust of medical professionals due to historical mistreatment and racial bias in health care. The experiences of Mercedes Wells do little to dispel the notion that the American health care system is designed to work against Black people. Hopefully, this bill passes, so no more women will have to endure what Mercedes Wells went through. SEE ALSO: White Women In Medicine Have Always Neglected Pregnant Black Women 7 Ways Racism Harms Pregnant Black Women  

Despite the GOP and President Donald Trump saying otherwise, the American economy ain’t doing so hot. Sadly, the adage that when white America catches a cold, Black people catch the flu is proving true, as Black women are disproportionately unemployed compared to the national average. According to Black Enterprise, the delayed September jobs report revealed that the unemployment rate for Black women increased from 6.7% to 7.5%. During that same time period, unemployment only ticked up from 3.2% to 3.4%. The general unemployment rate currently sits at 4.2%, though experts believe both numbers may be higher due to the delayed release of the September data. For reference, the unemployment rate for Black women is only 2.5% away from the general, peak unemployment rate reached during the 2008-09 recession. Rep. Ayanna Pressley has consistently been sounding the alarm bells about how what’s happening to Black women is a bellwether for the economy at large. Pressley sent a letter to the Federal Reserve, pressing them to do something to address the increase in Black women’s unemployment. According to AP, Pressley held a roundtable discussion about the issue of Black women’s unemployment. “Everyone is missing out when we’re pushed out of the workforce,” Pressley said during the discussion. “That is something that I worry about now, that you have all these women with specific expertise and specializations that we’re being deprived of.” She added that when Black women do find work, they usually wind up being “woefully underemployed.” Pressley and the participants in the roundtable pointed out how the actions taken by the Trump administration this year have contributed to the increase in Black women’s unemployment. Trump’s erratic tariff policy has particularly hurt small business owners. This has affected Black women in particular, as they have quickly become the fastest-growing group of small business owners in recent years. There’s more and more evidence that America is currently in a K-shaped economy, which means that the highest earners are making more and more while working-class and low-income people face more and more economic uncertainty. Despite no one officially declaring that we’re in a recession, when you compare the current economic climate to what was happening during the Great Recession, it’s getting harder and harder not to see the similarities. Layoffs have already surpassed 1 million this year, rivaling the numbers seen during the Great Recession. Car repossessions have surged at rates not seen since the Great Recession, and credit card defaults are reaching levels not seen since, you guessed it, the Great Recession. The uncomfortable reality is that the American economy is largely being propped up by speculative AI spending, which many experts are concerned is becoming a bubble. One consequence of having experienced a layoff myself is that I’ve become very invested in the world of finance, simply to understand why it’s so hard to find a stable job that pays well. Every time I’ve learned something new about the house of cards that is the American economy, my reaction is always the same: “Oh boy. Oh no. Wait, but how? How?! HOW IS THIS ALLOWED?” It’s incredibly clear that the economy is unsustainable and is already breaking down for those at the bottom. If the federal government doesn’t address the issue with urgency, we’re likely to be dealing with a financial collapse that could’ve been mitigated had we just listened to Black women. SEE ALSO: Ayanna Pressley Addresses Black Women’s Unemployment Unemployment Rate Remained Stubbornly High For Black Women In June