Brooklyn Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn recently spoke to the Amsterdam News about maternal health and its impact on Black and Latino mothers. Last month, she introduced Mickie’s Law in the Assembly, named after a Texas woman who was forced to carry a dead fetus because to have it removed would have been considered an abortion this month.
She recently told the publication that she is eight months pregnant at 49 and is taking extra precautions in light of her previous pregnancy, which ended in her losing a child.
At that time, she says, she was tin preterm labor and was treated with very lit- tle compassion at Columbia Presbyterian, when two doctors told her that her bed was needed and that she could either terminate her baby or she could leave. She then went to a local hospital, which gave her caring and support. However, by that time it was too late, she told the Amsterdam News.
The experience inspired her to create an- other law, the Jonah Bichotte Cowan Law, which requires hospitals to treat people in preterm labor and not send the women away. It was signed into law in 2020.
For more on Rodneyse Bichotte Her- melyn, visit brooklyneagle.com
