We watched a mother in North Texas bend forward in pain, clutch a chair for balance, and cry out for help while the hospital lobby around her stayed strangely calm. Her body was telling the story with absolute clarity. She was in labor. She needed immediate care. Yet the staff behind the desk continued to ask for paperwork, as if birth could pause while a form was completed.

In the face of a viral video that shocked people across the country, this bill offers more than outrage. It proposes action. It turns outrage into legislation. It demands that when a woman enters a hospital in labor, she is heard. She is seen. She is protected.

If we are serious about equity, justice, and human dignity, we must carry this moment forward beyond outrage. We must demand care. We must demand respect. We must demand that birth in America be met with more than a form to fill out or a checklist to run through. We must demand that birth is treated as the powerful, vulnerable, life-changing event it is.

If we want to save mothers in this country, we cannot keep pretending that the current model is working. We must expand the midwifery workforce. We must fund it. We must protect it. And we must integrate it into every layer of maternal care.