Connectivity and Maternal Health

In 2022, President Joe Biden (D-DE) signed the Data Mapping to Save Moms' Lives Act, which directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “incorporate publicly available data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity into the agency’s Mapping Broadband Health in America platform, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The bipartisan bill was introduced in 2021 by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Todd Young (R-IN), and Brian Schatz (D-HI), with a goal of identifying where improved access to telehealth services can be most effective in reducing maternal mortality. At the October 2024 FCC Open Meeting the Connect2Health task force presented on the mapping effort, and announced updates to the platform that would launch the following month, including improved broadband mapping data and the addition of facts about infant health outcomes, breast cancer prevalence, and other social indicators of health.