Georgia State Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta, said Thursday that the newly appointed legislative committee to examine the state's alarmingly high rate of maternal mortality failed to include enough representation from the group most affected: African American women.

“Black women die at three times the rate of Caucasian or any other woman in Georgia,” Cannon told the Daily Report. “We have over 30 African American female lawmakers in the house and a handful in the Senate. We are equipped to study this.”

Cannon said she and a group of African American women in the house initiated the idea of forming a legislative study committee on maternal mortality but were left out of it. She said the seven legislative members that House Speaker David Ralston appointed to the committee do not include the black female lawmakers “who have studied this issue for years.”

The committee does include two other African American women, as is required by House Resolution 589. Cannon said Ralston used the minimum as the maximum and still didn't pick from the group that spearheaded the effort.

The resolution notes that Georgia is consistently ranked as one of the 10 states with the highest rate of maternal mortality and that the Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee has already determined that most of those deaths are preventable.

Furthermore, Cannon noted, Ralston included a sponsor of the abortion ban the General Assembly passed and Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law, to take effect Jan. 1. Opponents of the ban argued repeatedly that it would lead to more deaths as women either continue high risk pregnancies or resort to unsafe means of ending them.

“The people who made maternal mortality worse by outlawing a necessary and safe procedure now are the ones who get to decide the next steps,” Cannon said. “That is truly frightening for women in Georgia.”

The speaker's communications director, Kaleb McMichen, said anyone can come to the group's meetings.

“It is common for more members to request to be on a study committee than the number of slots that are available according to the establishing resolution,” McMichen said. “That said, like all study committee meetings, the meetings of the House Study Committee on Maternal Mortality will be open to the public and any and every House member is always welcome to attend such meetings regardless of whether they are members of that particular committee.”

Cannon also said the best way to avoid worsening the maternal mortality problem in Georgia would be for the governor to call a special session to repeal the abortion ban.

The governor's communications director said the office had received no such request and that the study committee makeup is up to the speaker.