Sacramento Capitol Building image via wikipedia user Suvicce

A California elected official is denouncing a racist letter Friday that was admitted into the record regarding a piece of legislation.

Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City) issued a response on her X account Friday, condemning a letter of opposition to Assembly Bill 2319 she co-introduced that would extend evidence-based implicit bias training requirements to hospitals that provide perinatal or prenatal care for women of color.

The aim of the bill is to provide clarity on which facilities are mandated to administer anti-bias trainings and which employees need to be trained.

The letter, addressed to Mia Bonta, chair of the Assembly Health Committee and its members, was published in California’s legislative record but has since been stricken. It was sent on behalf of the Imperial Grand Aryan Council of California and the Western United White Knights

In her social media post, Wilson doesn’t share the letter but denounces its context.

“The language used in this letter is not only disgraceful, but dangerous and has no place in our society or legislative discourse,” Wilson wrote.

The letter furthers hateful, racist tropes related to Black women and children.

The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, with about 700 women dying each year from childbirth.

Black women make up 5% of the pregnancy cohort in the state, but account for 21% of pregnancy-related deaths. Black maternal deaths are also more likely to be miscoded, with an estimated 35% of pregnancy related deaths among Black women in the state identified as being caused by another factor.

The bill defines “implicit bias” as a bias in judgment or behavior from subtle cognitive processes, including implicit prejudice and implicit stereotypes that typically operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.

“Implicit bias is a key cause that drives health disparities in communities of color,” the bill reads.

Currently, California health care providers are not required to undergo any implicit bias testing or training.

In the Central Valley, the BLACK Wellness & Prosperity Center has made it its mission to improve Black maternal and infant health outcomes.

Founded in 2021 by Shantay Davies-Balch, the first Black Maternal Child Health Community Benefit Organization (CBO) in Fresno County was formed to “unapologetically serve the unmet needs of African American women and babies.”

Davies-Balch couldn’t be reached for comment Friday but wrote in a 2021 Business Journal Executive Profile about her motivations in starting the organization.

“It was driven by my own passion for women’s health, fierce commitment to address anti-Black racism within our systems and institutions, and fueled by my own mother’s early and preventable death at 51 from breast cancer, had our systems just listened to her,” wrote Davies-Balch.